The Archery Festival

So the brave Robin Hood left for the contest wearing rags like a beggar. The field where the contest was to be held was quite a sight. Workers had set up rows and rows of benches for the viewers to sit on.Glee filled the hearts of the people in the crowd, and they wore their very best clothes. All the cruel and wealthy lords were dressed like birds of paradise. The Sheriff had on purple velvet while his lady wore blue velvet, both trimmed with pure white fur, and they wore broad gold chains around their necks. If their faces had been kind, they would have looked beautiful, but their faces were full of pride and hate.

The Sheriff looked high and low for Robin Hood. There stood Robin in his beggar's clothes not ten feet from the Sheriff, but still the Sheriff did not recognize him. The targets were eighty yards away from where the archers were to stand. They were so far off, it was difficult to make out the circles.Dozens and dozens of archers took turns shooting just one arrow. The ten best archers, those who had actually hit the target, were then to shoot two arrows each. The three best of those ten would each have three shots, and the prize would go to the archer whose arrow landed nearest to the center of the target.

Finally it was time for the ten best archers to vie for the prize. The Sheriff glared at the ten men.“I was sure Robin Hood would be one of the final archers,” he said to the guard at his side. “Couldn't one of these men be Robin Hood dressed in a disguise?”

“No, sir,” said the man-at-arms. “Six of them I know well; they are the best archers in England. There's Gill o' the Red Cap, Diccon Cruikshank, Adam o' the Dell, William o' Leslie, Hubert o' Cloud, and Swithin o' Hertford. Of the other four, one is too tall, one is too short, and one is too lean to be Robin Hood. That leaves only the ragged beggar, and his hair and beard are much too dark to be Robin Hood's, and he is blind in one eye. Robin Hood is safe in Sherwood Forest.”

The guard was glad Robin hadn't fallen for the trap, for he didn't want to see Robin harmed. Robin Hood had lots of friends among the common people, and even the Sheriff's own guards had helped him get away many times. But even his loyal friends could not spot Robin on this day.

The ten top archers aimed and let their quills fly. The crowd watched in awe as each of the arrows struck near the center of the target.

The time came for the last three archers to raise their bows. Gill o' the Red Cap's first arrow struck only an inch from the center. His second and third were even closer. Then Robin Hood, who looked to everyone like the poorest beggar in England, shot his arrow to the very center. The crowd gasped. Adam o' the Dell still had yet to shoot, but he unstrung his bow when he saw the beggar's arrow strike. “I've been an archer for eighty years,” said the man. “And I will never be able to do better than that.”

And so the tattered beggar won the prized gold-covered arrow. But the Sheriff's face was scrunched and sour when the time came to give it to him. “You are the best archer I have ever seen,” he said.“You shoot even better than that coward Robin Hood, who dared not show his face today. I will pay you well if you join my service.”

“I will not,” said the ragged stranger. Robin Hood left quickly under the gaze of a spiteful Sheriff. But the Sheriff's words got to Robin as he walked back to the wood. “I just can't bear to have him think I am a coward,” he said to Little John, his right-hand man.“I wish there were a way to let the Sheriff know I am the person who won his fine gold-covered arrow.”