"And thou dost own that I am the better man of the two?"
"Yea, truly, and a murrain seize thee!" said Little John, the first aloud and the last to his beard.
"Then thou mayst go thy ways; and thank thy patron saint that I am a merciful man," said the Tanner.
"A plague o' such mercy as thine!" said Little John, sitting up and feeling his ribs where the Tanner had cudgeled him. "I make my vow, my ribs feel as though every one of them were broken in twain. I tell thee, good fellow, I did think there was never a man in all Nottinghamshire could do to me what thou hast done this day."
"And so thought I, also," cried Robin Hood, bursting out of the thicket and shouting with laughter till the tears ran down his cheeks. "O man, man!" said he, as well as he could for his mirth, "'a didst go ove
