So the knight went with the yeomen, but his face was still sad and careworn, and tears often fell from his eyes. Little John and Will Scarlet brought him to the door of the lodge in Barnsdale, where the outlaws were staying at that time, and as soon as Robin saw him he lifted his hood courteously, and bent low in token of respect. "Welcome, sir knight, welcome. I am right glad to see you. I have awaited you fasting, sir, for the last three hours." "God save thee, good Robin, and all thy fair company," returned the knight pleasantly. Robin brought clear water from the well for the guest to wash himself from the dust of travel, and then they sat down to dinner. The meal was spread under the trees in the greenwood, and rarely had the stranger seen a repast so amply furnished. Bread and wine they had in plenty, and dainty portions of deer, swans and pheasants, plump and tender, and all kinds of water-fowl from the river, and every sort of woodland bird that was good for eating. Robin heaped his guest's plate with choice morsels, and bade him fall to merrily. "Eat well, sir knight, eat well," he urged him. "Thanks, thanks," said the knight. "I have not had such a dinner as this for three weeks. If I come again into this country, Robin, I will make as good a dinner for you as you have made for me." "Thanks for my dinner, good knight, when I have it," returned the outlaw. "I was never so greedy as to crave for dinner. But before you go, would it not be seemly for you to pay for what you have eaten? It was never the custom for a yeoman to pay for a knight." "I have nothing in my coffers that I can proffer, for shame," said the knight. "Go, Little John, and look," said Robin. "Now swear to me that you are telling the truth," he added to his guest. "I swear to you, by heaven, I have no more than ten shillings," said the knight. "If you have no more than that I will not take one penny," said Robin. "And if you have need of any more I will lend it you. Go now, Little John, and tell me the truth. If there be no more than ten shillings, not one penny of that will I touch." Little John spread out his mantle on the ground ready to hold any treasure he might find, but when lie looked in the knight's coifer he saw nothing but one piece of money of the value of half a pound. He left it lying where it was, and went to tell his master. "What tidings, John?" asked Robin. "Sir, the knight is true enough." "Fill a cup with the best wine, and hand it first to the knight," said Robin. "Sir, I much wonder that your clothing is so thin. Tell me one thing, I pray. I trow you must have been made a knight by force, or else you have squandered your means by reckless or riotous living? Perhaps you have been foolish and thriftless, or else have lost all your money in brawling and strife? Or possibly you have been a usurer or a drunkard, or wasted your life in wickedness and wrong-doing?"