return

1292 the return of the king
time he went back to the Shire. Sam shared it. Only the night
before he had said:
‘Well, Mr. Frodo, we’ve been far and seen a deal, and yet
I don’t think we’ve found a better place than this. There’s
something of everything here, if you understand me: the Shire
and the Golden Wood and Gondor and kings’ houses and
inns and meadows and mountains all mixed. And yet, somehow,
I feel we ought to be going soon. I’m worried about my
gaffer, to tell you the truth.’
‘Yes, something of everything, Sam, except the Sea,’ Frodo
had answered; and he repeated it now to himself: ‘Except
the Sea.’
That day Frodo spoke to Elrond, and it was agreed that
they should leave the next morning. To their delight Gandalf
said: ‘I think I shall come too. At least as far as Bree. I want
to see Butterbur.’
In the evening they went to say good-bye to Bilbo. ‘Well,
if you must go, you must,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. I shall miss
you. It is nice just to know that you are about the place. But
I am getting very sleepy.’ Then he gave Frodo his mithril-coat
and Sting, forgetting that he had already done so; and he
gave him also three books of lore that he had made at various
times, written in his spidery hand, and labelled on their red
backs: Translations from the Elvish, by B.B.
To Sam he gave a little bag of gold. ‘Almost the last drop
of the Smaug vintage,’ he said. ‘May come in useful, if you
think of getting married, Sam.’ Sam blushed.
‘I have nothing much to give to you young fellows,’ he said
to Merry and Pippin, ‘except good advice.’ And when he had
given them a fair sample of this, he added a last item in
Shire-fashion: ‘Don’t let your heads get too big for your hats!
But if you don’t finish growing up soon, you are going to
find hats and clothes expensive.’
‘But if you want to beat the Old Took,’ said Pippin, ‘I
don’t see why we shouldn’t try and beat the Bullroarer.’
Bilbo laughed, and he produced out of a pocket two beautiful
pipes with pearl mouth-pieces and bound with fine-