"But I cannot be married without my father's blessing," sobbed Ellen, for she was ever an obedient daughter. "There, there, don't cry," said Robin Hood gently. "I will get your father's blessing." Then he called to Will Stutely. "Give me the two bags of gold I bade you bring." He strode up to Ellen's father with a bag of gold in each hand. "Here are two hundred golden angels," he said. "If you give your daughter your blessing on this her wedding day, I will give you these as her dower. If you give her not the blessing, she shall be married just the same, but not a cracked farthing shalt thou have." The father looked at the gold and then at Robin Hood. He knew the knight was gone and would not come back. "Well," he said, but not happily, "I will give her my blessing." So the wedding went on; and after it was over they went to Sherwood Forest and held the merriest feast that ever was held in that merry place. And Allen-a-Dale and his bride lived happy all the rest of their lives, and he sang such beautiful songs that his fame went all over England. As for Friar Tuck, he liked Robin Hood and his band so much that he never went back to Fountain Dale but became one of Robin Hood's merry men. ROBIN HOOD AND THE SORROWFUL KNIGHT "We have had no guests for a long time," said Robin Hood one day. "Let us go out and look for some. Little John, you go to the east and I will go to the west, and we will see if we do not find passing a greedy noble, or fat churchman who carries too much of this world's goods with him, and needs to be relieved for the good of the poor." Now when Robin Hood and his men robbed a man--and they never molested any but the rich who had made their wealth by grinding down the poor--they brought him into the forest and made a feast for him. Then, after he had feasted, they told him he must pay his reckoning, and they took his goods or gold that he carried and divided these into three piles. One-third they gave back to him; one-third they kept for themselves; and the other third they distributed to the poor. The rich and grasping shuddered at the very mention of Robin Hood's feasts, but the poor breathed blessings on his name whenever they thought of them. So Little John and his part of the band went to the east; and they were lucky, for they brought in the rich bishop of Hereford with five sumpter mules loaded with goods. But Robin Hood and his half found only a sorrowful knight who sighed as he rode along and seemed too sad to notice anything. Robin Hood laid his hand on his bridle, stopping his horse. "Hold," he said. "I would speak with you." "Now who are you who would stop a peaceful traveler on the king's highway?" asked the knight. "Some call me an honest man and some call me a robber," answered Robin Hood. "At any rate, I and my men have an inn in the forest where we want you to stop and feast. But we let you know that we count upon our guests paying their reckoning."