towers

732 the two towers
the deliveries have been rather interrupted in the last few
days! I cannot offer you anything to follow but butter and
honey for your bread. Are you content?’
‘Indeed yes,’ said Gimli. ‘The score is much reduced.’
The three were soon busy with their meal; and the two
hobbits, unabashed, set to a second time. ‘We must keep our
guests company,’ they said.
‘You are full of courtesy this morning,’ laughed Legolas.
‘But maybe, if we had not arrived, you would already have
been keeping one another company again.’
‘Maybe; and why not?’ said Pippin. ‘We had foul fare with
the Orcs, and little enough for days before that. It seems a
long while since we could eat to heart’s content.’
‘It does not seem to have done you any harm,’ said
Aragorn. ‘Indeed you look in the bloom of health.’
‘Aye, you do indeed,’ said Gimli, looking them up and
down over the top of his cup. ‘Why, your hair is twice as
thick and curly as when we parted; and I would swear that
you have both grown somewhat, if that is possible for hobbits
of your age. This Treebeard at any rate has not starved you.’
‘He has not,’ said Merry. ‘But Ents only drink, and drink
is not enough for content. Treebeard’s draughts may be nourishing,
but one feels the need of something solid. And even
lembas is none the worse for a change.’
‘You have drunk of the waters of the Ents, have you?’ said
Legolas. ‘Ah, then I think it is likely that Gimli’s eyes do not
deceive him. Strange songs have been sung of the draughts
of Fangorn.’
‘Many strange tales have been told about that land,’ said
Aragorn. ‘I have never entered it. Come, tell me more about
it, and about the Ents!’
‘Ents,’ said Pippin, ‘Ents are – well Ents are all different
for one thing. But their eyes now, their eyes are very odd.’
He tried a few fumbling words that trailed off into silence.
‘Oh, well,’ he went on, ‘you have seen some at a distance,
already – they saw you at any rate, and reported that you
were on the way – and you will see many others, I expect,