But to-day was midsummer, the feast of St. John the Baptist, when all the country folk held high festival and Robin decreed a holiday for his men. So, at the far end of the Stane Ley, the cooks were tending a midday meal which was already beginning to send out a savoury smell of broiled venison and new bread and river trout. And dotted about the open turf, passing the time as best pleased them, the outlaws waited for their dinner. It was very hot in the glade, though the shadows lay black and cool beneath the trees that rimmed it round, and the friar’s dogs lay sprawled out among the outlaws, sleeping, or snapping at the midges that hovered up and down in the sunshine. ‘Dinner smells good!’ said Little John, lounging against the silver trunk of a beech tree. He thrust out a foot and poked idly with his toe at Will Scarlet, who lay on his stomach, half in shade and half in sunshine, rubbing Orthros behind the ears; and Scarlet raised his head and sniffed loudly. Much, sitting cross-legged beside him (for the three were seldom apart), looked up from the piece of harness he was mending.
What do You think about The Chronicles Of Robin Hood?
