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many partings 1289
it will serve you right when you come home, if you find things
less good in the Southfarthing than you would like. Long
may your land be short of leaf !’
‘Thank you!’ said Merry. ‘In that case I will have my pouch
back, which is not yours and has journeyed far with me.
Wrap the weed in a rag of your own.’
‘One thief deserves another,’ said Saruman, and turned his
back on Merry, and kicked Wormtongue, and went away
towards the wood.
‘Well, I like that!’ said Pippin. ‘Thief indeed! What of our
claim for waylaying, wounding, and orc-dragging us through
Rohan?’
‘Ah!’ said Sam. ‘And bought he said. How, I wonder?
And I didn’t like the sound of what he said about the Southfarthing.
It’s time we got back.’
‘I’m sure it is,’ said Frodo. ‘But we can’t go any quicker, if
we are to see Bilbo. I am going to Rivendell first, whatever
happens.’
‘Yes, I think you had better do that,’ said Gandalf. ‘But
alas for Saruman! I fear nothing more can be made of him.
He has withered altogether. All the same, I am not sure that
Treebeard is right: I fancy he could do some mischief still in
a small mean way.’
Next day they went on into northern Dunland, where no
men now dwelt, though it was a green and pleasant country.
September came in with golden days and silver nights, and
they rode at ease until they reached the Swanfleet river, and
found the old ford, east of the falls where it went down
suddenly into the lowlands. Far to the west in a haze lay
the meres and eyots through which it wound its way to the
Greyflood: there countless swans housed in a land of reeds.
So they passed into Eregion, and at last a fair morning
dawned, shimmering above gleaming mists; and looking from
their camp on a low hill the travellers saw away in the east
the Sun catching three peaks that thrust up into the sky
through floating clouds: Caradhras, Celebdil, and Fanuidhol.
They were near to the Gates of Moria.