Or any of them could red their eyne, Or could a glimm'ring see, 200 Ilk one of them a dozen had Well laid on with the tree. The young men were right swift of foot, And boldly ran away, The beggar could them no more hit, 205 For all the haste he may. "What ails this haste?" the beggar said, "May ye not tarry still, Until your money be received? I'll pay you with good will. 210 "The shaking of my pocks, I fear, Hath blown into your eyne; But I have a good pike-staff here Can ripe them out full clean." The young men answer'd never a word, 215 They were dumb as a stane; In the thick wood the beggar fled, E'er they riped their eyne. And syne the night became so late, To seek him was in vain: 220 But judge ye, if they lookèd blate, When they came home again. Good Robin spear'd how they had sped; They answer'd him, "Full ill:" "That cannot be," good Robin says, 225 "Ye have been at the mill. "The mill it is a meatrif place, They may lick what they please; Most like ye have been at that art, Who would look to your cloaths." 230 They hang'd their heads, they dropèd down, A word they could not speak: Robin said, "Because I fell a-swoon, I think you'll do the like. "Tell on the matter, less or more, 235 And tell me what and how[L236] Ye have done with the bold beggàr, I sent you for right now." And when they told him to an end, As I have said before, 240 How that the beggar did them blind, What misters process more, And how he lin'd their shoulders broad[L243] With his great trenchen tree,[L244] And how in the thick wood he fled, 245 E'er they a stime could see, And how they scarcely could win home, Their bones were beft so sore, Good Robin cry'd, "Fy! out, for shame! We're sham'd for evermore." 250 Altho' good Robin would full fain Of his wrong revengèd be, He smil'd to see his merry young men Had gotten a taste of the tree. 72,73. Wanting in the original, and restored from the Aberdeen copy. GUTCH. 153, wonder. RITSON. 236, where. 243, 244. These two lines are restored from the Aberdeen ballad. G. THE JOLLY PINDER OF WAKEFIELD. WITH ROBIN HOOD, SCARLET, AND JOHN. Ritson's _Robin Hood_, ii. 18. "From an old black-letter copy, in A. à Wood's collection, compared with two others in the British Museum, one in black-letter.