return

1006 the return of the king
towards the Great Gate. In it he found the Old Guesthouse,
a large building of grey weathered stone with two wings running
back from the street, and between them a narrow greensward,
behind which was the many-windowed house, fronted
along its whole width by a pillared porch and a flight of steps
down on to the grass. Boys were playing among the pillars,
the only children that Pippin had seen in Minas Tirith, and
he stopped to look at them. Presently one of them caught
sight of him, and with a shout he sprang across the grass and
came into the street, followed by several others. There he
stood in front of Pippin, looking him up and down.
‘Greetings!’ said the lad. ‘Where do you come from? You
are a stranger in the City.’
‘I was,’ said Pippin; ‘but they say I have become a man of
Gondor.’
‘Oh come!’ said the lad. ‘Then we are all men here. But
how old are you, and what is your name? I am ten years
already, and shall soon be five feet. I am taller than you. But
then my father is a Guard, one of the tallest. What is your
father?’
‘Which question shall I answer first?’ said Pippin. ‘My
father farms the lands round Whitwell near Tuckborough in
the Shire. I am nearly twenty-nine, so I pass you there; though
I am but four feet, and not likely to grow any more, save
sideways.’
‘Twenty-nine!’ said the lad and whistled. ‘Why, you are
quite old! As old as my uncle Iorlas. Still,’ he added hopefully,
‘I wager I could stand you on your head or lay you on your
back.’
‘Maybe you could, if I let you,’ said Pippin with a laugh.
‘And maybe I could do the same to you: we know some
wrestling tricks in my little country. Where, let me tell you, I
am considered uncommonly large and strong; and I have
never allowed anyone to stand me on my head. So if it came
to a trial and nothing else would serve, I might have to kill
you. For when you are older, you will learn that folk are not
always what they seem; and though you may have taken me