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had fallen upon his ear. A little further off, another man lay
slumbering, rolled in a brown cloak, with a butterfly hovering above his
face. All this was in a clearing white with daisies; and at the extreme
verge, a bow, a sheaf of arrows, and part of a deer's carcase, hung upon
a flowering hawthorn.
Presently the fellow relaxed from his attitude of attention, raised the
spoon to his mouth, tasted its contents, nodded, and then fell again to
stirring and singing.
"'O, they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town,'" he
croaked, taking up his song where he had left it.
"O, sir, we walk not here at all an evil thing to do.
But if we meet with the good king's deer to shoot a shaft into."
Still as he sang, he took from time to time, another spoonful of the
broth, blew upon it, and tasted it, with all the airs of an experienced
cook. At length, apparently, he judged the mess was ready; for taking
the horn from his girdle, he blew three modulated calls.
The other fellow awoke, rolled over, brushed away the butterfly, and
looked about him.
"How now, brother?" he said. "Dinner?"
"Ay, sot," replied the cook, "dinner it is, and a dry dinner, too, with
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