return

1308 the return of the king
the ponies one of them let fly with his heels and just caught
him as he ran. He went off with a yelp into the night and was
never heard of again.
‘Neat work, Bill,’ said Sam, meaning the pony.
‘So much for your Big Man,’ said Merry. ‘We’ll see
the Chief later. In the meantime we want a lodging for the
night, and as you seem to have pulled down the Bridge
Inn and built this dismal place instead, you’ll have to put
us up.’
‘I am sorry, Mr. Merry,’ said Hob, ‘but it isn’t allowed.’
‘What isn’t allowed?’
‘Taking in folk off-hand like, and eating extra food, and all
that,’ said Hob.
‘What’s the matter with the place?’ said Merry. ‘Has it
been a bad year, or what? I thought it had been a fine summer
and harvest.’
‘Well no, the year’s been good enough,’ said Hob. ‘We
grows a lot of food, but we don’t rightly know what becomes
of it. It’s all these ‘‘gatherers’’ and ‘‘sharers’’, I reckon, going
round counting and measuring and taking off to storage.
They do more gathering than sharing, and we never see most
of the stuff again.’
‘Oh come!’ said Pippin yawning. ‘This is all too tiresome
for me tonight. We’ve got food in our bags. Just give us a
room to lie down in. It’ll be better than many places I have
seen.’
The hobbits at the gate still seemed ill at ease, evidently
some rule or other was being broken; but there was no gainsaying
four such masterful travellers, all armed, and two of
them uncommonly large and strong-looking. Frodo ordered
the gates to be locked again. There was some sense at any
rate in keeping a guard, while ruffians were still about. Then
the four companions went into the hobbit guard-house and
made themselves as comfortable as they could. It was a bare
and ugly place, with a mean little grate that would not allow
a good fire. In the upper rooms were little rows of hard beds,