Robin is a youth of 18 years who travels across the ocean to see Major Molineux, his uncle. As he arrives, he is confident that everything will work out, even though he doesn't know where Major Molineux lives, nor does he have much money left over from the trip. The narrator offers this description of his appearance.
"He was clad in a coarse gray coat, well worn, but in excellent repair; his under-garments were durably constructed of leather, and fitted tight to a pair of serviceable and well-shaped limbs; his stockings of blue yarn were the incontrovertible work of a mother o a sister; and on his head was a three-cornered hat, which in its better days had perhaps sheltered the graver brow of the lad's father. Under his left arm was a heavy cudgel, formed of an oak sapling, and retaining a part of the hardened root; and his equipment was completed by a wallet, not so abundantly stocked as to incommode the vigorous shoulders on which it hung. Brown, curly hair, well-shaped features, and bright, cheerful eyes, were nature's gifts, and worth all that art could have done for his adornment."
Robin decides to ask where his kinsman Major Molineux resides. His first attempt ends in failure when he is angrily rebuked by a man he encounteres on the street. Robin is still confident after this setback, and continues on his way. Next he happens upon a tavern full of people. It is here that Robin first sees the very strange looking man that he will later meet, The narrator describes this figure as,
"His features were separately striking almost to grotesqueness, and the whole face left a deep impression on the memory. The forehead bulged out into a double prominence, with a vale between; the nose came boldly forth in an irregular curve, and its bridge was of more than a finger's breadth; the eyebrows were deep and shaggy, and the eyes glowed beneath them like fire in a cave."
Robin is approached by the innkeeper who he asks his usual question of where Major Molineux lives. The innkeeper apparently does know who Major Molineux is, and also like most of the people in the town, hates him. His response to Robin is to accuse him of being an indentured servant who had ran away from his master, so Robin quickly left the Tavern. At this point Robin is frustrated and tries to avoid any more public embarrasment. Next he spots a door partly open with a woman standing behind the door. He asks her where Major Molineux resides, and she claims that he lives in the house she is in. Robin however, does not enter the home, and is instead chased away by the night watchman. After walking the street a while, Robin encountered the strange looking man from the tavern. Then, after asking the man his usual question, the man tells him that Major Molineux will pass by in an hour. The strange looking man now looks different however. One side of his face is red and the other black. During the wait, Robin meets a gentleman who tells him to continue waiting where he is. After a brief period of time, a mob of people dressed in costumes march by where Robin was waiting. The leader of the mob is a man on horseback that has his face red on one side and black on the other, In the mob Robin sees Major Molineux, tared and feathered. At this point Robin finally realizes the situation he is in, and he joins in on the laughter of the mob. Something I find puzzling about this scene is why Robin laughed, instead of getting mad and trying the help Major Molineux. I think possibly Robin is overcome with fear because everyone he came across earlier is now laughing at him, and he feels the necessity to laugh along with them. Or maybe, he realizes his own foolishness for not figuring out what was going on before, and now is laughing at himself. Another explaination for the whole scene at the end could be that his troubles have been because this story has been some sort of rite of passage. Robin is going from the old world to the new, also he is changing from adolensence to adulthood, and he is coming from a rural setting to a city. Maybe now he consideres himself one of the gang since he has passed through all that and can now laugh about it.