My word, big un, I'd have given something to have been there to
hear his bones rattle. Well, I didn't teach you for naught. But
look here, if you meet that fellow in the forest again don't you
wait for him to begin; you go at him at once."
Robin nodded his head, but he never saw the swineherd again.
CHAPTER VII
Young Robin's father, the Sheriff, suffered very sadly from the
loss of his son and his goods, and Robin's aunt came to Nottingham
and wept bitterly over the loss of the little boy she loved dearly.
For David, the old servant in whose charge Robin had been placed
when he was going home, had done what too many weak people do,
tried to hide one fault by committing another.
Robin was given into his charge to protect and take safely home to
his father, and when the attack was made by the outlaw's men,
instead of doing anything to protect the little fellow and save him
from being injured by Robin Hood's people, he thought only of
himself. He threw his charge into the first bushes he came to, and
galloped away, hardly stopping till he reached Nottingham town.
There the first question the Sheriff asked was, not what had become
of the pack mules and the consignment of cloth, but where was
Robin, and the false servant said that he had fought hard to save
him in the fight, but fought in vain, and that the poor boy was
dead.
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