GUYS READ THIS ITS SOME PARTS OF THE HOBBIT
at least spend some time to read it can help you read fast and understand more comperhension on tests
------------------------------------posted by mkelite8614@gmail.com-----------------------------------------
CHAPTER I. AN UNEXPECTED PARTY
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet
hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,
sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole,
and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a
shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a
tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke,
with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished
chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit was fond
of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight
into the side of the hill - The Hill, as all the people for many miles round
called it - and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side
and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms,
bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole
rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same
floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the
left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows,
deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond,
sloping down to the river.
This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins.
The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of
mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because
most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures
or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on
any question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of how a
Baggins had an adventure, found himself doing and saying things altogether
unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours’ respect, but he gainedwell,
you will see whether he gained anything in the end.
The mother of our particular hobbit … what is a hobbit? I suppose
hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare
and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little
people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves.
Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except
the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and
quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along,
making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are
inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly
green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery
soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is
- 8 -
curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh
deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day
when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with. As I was
saying, the mother of this hobbit - of Bilbo Baggins, that is - was the
fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable daughters of the
Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river
that ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that
long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That
was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely
hobbit-like about them, - and once in a while members of the Took-clan
would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family
hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable
as the Bagginses, though they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna
Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins.
Bungo, that was Bilbo’s father, built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her
(and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or
over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained to the end of
their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked
and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable
father, got something a bit queer in his makeup from the Took side,
something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never
arrived, until Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or
so, and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father, which I have
just described for you, until he had in fact apparently settled down
immovably.
By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the
world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were
still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his
door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached
nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by. Gandalf!
If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I
have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared
for any sort I of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all
over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion. He
had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages, not since
his friend the Old Took died, in fact, and the hobbits had almost forgotten
what he looked like. He had been away over The Hill and across The
Water on business of his own since they were all small hobbit-boys and
hobbit-girls.
All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man
with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf
over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black
- 9 -
boots.
“Good morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining,
and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long
bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
“What do you mean?” be said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean
that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this
morning; or that it is morning to be good on?”
“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe
of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit
down and have a fill of mine! There’s no hurry, we have all the day before
us!” Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew
out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without
breaking and floated away over The Hill.
“Very pretty!” said Gandalf. “But I have no time to blow smokerings
this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure
that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.”
“I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have
no use for adventures. Nasty .disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you
late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them,” said our Mr.
Baggins, and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out another
even bigger smoke-ring. Then he took out his morning letters, and begin
to read, pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided
that he was not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. But the old
man did not move. He stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit
without saying anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a
little cross.
“Good morning!” he said at last. “We don’t want any adventures
here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water.” By this
he meant that the conversation was at an end.
“What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!” said Gandalf.
“Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good
till I move off.”
“Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don’t think I know
your name?”
“Yes, yes, my dear sir - and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins.
And you do know my name, though you don’t remember that I belong to
it. I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived
to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son, as if I was selling buttons
at the door!”
“Gandalf, Gandalf! Good gracious me! Not the wandering wizard
that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves
and never came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such
- 10 -
wonderful tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the
rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows’ sons? Not the
man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember
those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer’s Eve. Splendid! They
used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and
hang in the twilight all evening!” You will notice already that Mr. Baggins
was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe, also that he was very fond of
flowers. “Dear me!” she went on. “Not the Gandalf who was responsible
for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures.
Anything from climbing trees to visiting Elves - or sailing in ships, sailing
to other shores! Bless me, life used to be quite inter - I mean, you used to
upset things badly in these parts once upon a time. I beg your pardon,
but I had no idea you were still in business.”
“Where else should I be?” said the wizard. “All the same I am
pleased to find you remember something about me. You seem to remember
my fireworks kindly, at any rate, land that is not without hope. Indeed for
your old grand-father Took’s sake, and for the sake of poor Belladonna, I
will give you what you asked for.”
“I beg your pardon, I haven’t asked for anything!”
“Yes, you have! Twice now. My pardon. I give it you. In fact I will
go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me, very
good for you and profitable too, very likely, if you ever get over it.”
“Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you. Not today. Good
morning! But please come to tea - any time you like! Why not tomorrow?
Come tomorrow! Good-bye!”
With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green
door, and shut it as quickly as he dared, not to seen rude. Wizards after all
are wizards.
“What on earth did I ask him to tea for!” he said to him-self, as he
went to the pantry. He had only just had break fast, but he thought a cake
or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright.
Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door, and laughing
long but quietly. After a while he stepped up, and with the spike of his
staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit’s beautiful green front-door.
Then he strode away, just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his
second cake and beginning to think that he had escape adventures very
well.
The next day he had almost forgotten about Gandalf He did not
remember things very well, unless he put them down on his Engagement
Tablet: like this: Gandalf ‘¥a Wednesday. Yesterday he had been too
flustered to do anything of the kind. Just before tea-time there came a
tremendous ring on the front-door bell, and then he remembered! He
- 11 -
rushed and put on the kettle, and put out another cup and saucer and an
extra cake or two, and ran to the door.
“I am so sorry to keep you waiting!” he was going to say, when he
saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked
into a golden belt, and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. As
soon a the door was opened, he pushed inside, just as if he had been
expected.
He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg, and “Dwalin at your
service!” he said with a low bow.
“Bilbo Baggins at yours!” said the hobbit, too surprised to ask any
questions for the moment. When the silence that followed had become
uncomfortable, he added: “I am just about to take tea; pray come and
have some with me.” A little stiff perhaps, but he meant it kindly. And
what would you do, if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in
your hall without a word of explanation?
They had not been at table long, in fact they had hardly reached
the third cake, when there came another even louder ring at the bell.
“Excuse me!” said the hobbit, and off he went to the door.
“So you have got here at last!” was what he was going to say to
Gandalf this time. But it was not Gandalf. Instead there was a very oldlooking
dwarf on the step with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he
too hopped inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been
invited.
“I see they have begun to arrive already,” he said when he caught
sight of Dwalin’s green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it,
and “Balin at your service!” he said with his hand on his breast.
“Thank you!” said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to
say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors,
but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask
them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short,
and then he-as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painfulhe
might have to go without.
“Come along in, and have some tea!” he managed to say after
taking a deep breath.
“A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my
good sir,” said Balin with the white beard. “But I don’t mind some cakeseed-
cake, if you have any.”
“Lots!” Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he
found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and to
the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked
that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.
When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like
- 12 -
old friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers). Bilbo plumped down
the beer and the cake in front of them, when loud came a ring at the bell
again, and then another ring.
“Gandalf for certain this time,” he thought as he puffed along the
passage. But it was not. It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods,
silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools
