Part 6 (2/2)

'There's Bucklebury! ' said Frodo.

'Thank goodness! ' said Odo. 'My feet are sore, sticky, and mud- tired. Also it is getting chilly.' He stumbled into a puddle and splashed up a fountain of dirty water. 'Drat it! ' he said. 'I've nearly had enough of to-day's walk. Do you think there is any chance of a bath to-night?' Without waiting for an answer he suddenly began a hobbit bathroom song.

O Water mann and mater hot!

O Water boiled in pan and pot!

O Water blue and mater green, O Water silver-clear and clean, Of bath I sing my song!

O praise the steam expectant nose!

O bless the tub my weary toes!

O happy fingers come and play!

O arms and legs, you here may stay, And wallow warm and long!

Put mire away! Forget the clay!

Shut out the night! Wash off the day!

In water lapping chin and knees, In water kind now lie at ease, Until the dinner gong!

'Really you might wait till you are in the bath!' said Frodo. 'I warn you,' added Bingo, 'that you will have yours last, or else you will not wallow very long.'

'Very well,' said Odo; 'only I warn you that if you go first you must not take all the hot water, or I shall drown you in your own bath. I want a hot bath and a clean one.'

'You may not get any,' said Bingo. 'I don't know what Marmaduke has arranged, or where we are sleeping. I didn't order baths, and if we get them they will be our last for some time, I expect.'

Their talk flagged. They were now getting really tired, and went along with their chins down and their eyes in front of their toes. They were quite startled when suddenly a voice behind them cried: 'Hi! ' It then burst into a loud song: As I was sitting by the way, I saw three hobbits walking: One was dumb with naught to say, The others were not talking.

'Good night!'I said. 'Good night to you!'

They heeded not my greeting: One was deaf like the other two.

It was a merry meeting!

'Marmaduke!' cried Bingo turning round. 'Where did you spring from?'

'You pa.s.sed me sitting at the road-side,' said Marmaduke. 'Perhaps I ought to have lain down in the road; but then you would have just trodden on me and pa.s.sed gaily on.'

'We are tired,' said Bingo.

'So it seems. I told you you would be - but you were so proud and stiff. ”Ponies! Pooh!” you said. ”Just a little leg-stretcher before the real business begins.”'

'As it happens ponies would not have helped much,' said Bingo. 'We have been having adventures.' He stopped suddenly and looked up and down the dark road. 'We will tell you later.' 'Bless me!' said Marmaduke. 'But how mean of you! You shouldn't have adventures without me. And what are you peering about for? Are there some big bad rabbits loose?'

'Don't be so Marmadukish all at once! I can't bear it at the end of the day,' said Odo. 'Let's get off our legs and have some food, and then you shall hear a tale. Can I have a bath?'

'What?' said Marmaduke. 'A bath? That would put you right out of training again. A bath! I am surprised at such a question. Now lift up your chins and follow me! '

A few yards further on there was a turning to the left. They went down a path, neat and well-kept and edged with large white stones. It led them quickly to the river-bank. There there was a landing-stage big enough for several boats. Its white posts glimmered in the gloom. The mists were beginning to gather almost hedge-high in the fields, but the water before them was dark with only a few curling wisps of grey like steam among the reeds at the sides. The Brandywine River flowed slow and broad. On the other side two lamps twinkled upon another landing-stage with many steps going up the high bank beyond. Behind it the low hill loomed, and out of the hill through stray strands of mist shone many round hobbit-windows, red and yellow. They were the lights of Brandy Hall, the ancient home of the Brandybucks. Long, long ago the Brandybucks had crossed the River (the original boundary of the s.h.i.+re on this side), attracted by the high bank and the drier rolling ground behind. But their family (one of the oldest hobbit families) grew, and grew, until Brandy Hall occupied the whole of the low hill, and had three large front doors, several back doors, and at least fifty windows. The Brandybucks and their numerous dependants then began to burrow and later to build all round about. That was the origin of the village of Bucklebury-by-the-River. A great deal of the land on the west side of the river still belonged to the family, almost as far as Woodhall, but most of the actual Brandybucks lived in Buckland: a thickly inhabited strip between the River and the Old Forest, a sort of colony from the old s.h.i.+re.

The people of the old s.h.i.+re, of course, told strange tales of the Bucklanders; but as a matter of fact the Bucklanders were hobbits, and not really very different from other hobbits of the North, South, or West - except in one point: they were fond of boats and some of them could swim. Also they were unprotected from the East except by a hedge, THE HEDGE. It had been planted ages ago. It now ran all the way from Brandywine Bridge to Haysend in a big loop, furthest from the River behind Bucklebury, something like forty miles from end to end.”(9) It was thick and tall, and was constantly tended. But of course it was not a complete protection. The Bucklanders kept their doors locked, and that also was not usual in the s.h.i.+re.

Marmaduke helped his friends into a small boat that lay at the stage. He then cast off and taking a pair of oars pulled across the river. Frodo and Bingo had often been to Buckland before. Bingo's mother was a Brandybuck. Marmaduke was Frodo's cousin, since his mother Yolanda was Folco Took's sister, and Folco was Frodo's father. Marmaduke was thus Took plus Brandybuck, and that was apt to be a lively blend.'(10) But Odo had never been so far East before. He had a queer feeling as they crossed the slow silent river, as if he had now at last started, as if he was crossing a boundary and leaving his old life on the other sh.o.r.e. They stepped quietly out of the boat. Marmaduke was tying it up, when Frodo said suddenly in a whisper: 'I say, look back! Do you see anything?'

On the stage they had left they seemed to see a dark black bundle sitting in the gloom; it seemed to be peering, or sniffing, this way and that at the ground they had trodden.

'What in the s.h.i.+re is that?' said Marmaduke.

'Our Adventure, that we have been and left behind on the other side; or at least I hope so,' said Bingo. 'Can horses get across the River?'

'What have horses got to do with it? They can get across, I suppose, if they can swim; but I have never seen them do it here. There are bridges. But what have horses to do with it?'

'A great deal!' said Bingo. 'But let's get away!' He took Marmaduke by the arm and hurried him up the steps on to the path above the landing. Frodo looked back, but the far sh.o.r.e was now shrouded in mist and nothing more could be seen.

'Where are you taking us for the night?' asked Odo. 'Not to Brandy Hall?'

'Indeed not!' said Marmaduke. 'It's crowded. And anyway I thought you wanted to be secret. I am taking you to a nice little house on the far side of Bucklebury. It's a mile more, I am afraid, but it is quite cosy and out of the way. I don't expect anyone will notice us. You wouldn't want to meet old Rory just now, Bingo! He is in a ramping mood still, about your behaviour. They treated him badly at the inn at Bywater on the party night (they were more full up than Brandy Hall); and then his carriage broke down on the way home, on the hill above Woodhall, and he blames you for these accidents as well.'

'I don't want to see him, and I don't much mind what he says or thinks,' said Bingo. 'I wanted to get out of the s.h.i.+re unseen, just to complete the joke, but now I have other reasons for wanting to be secret. Let's hurry.'

They came at length to a little low one-storied house. It was an old-fas.h.i.+oned building, as much like a hobbit-hole as possible: it had a round door and round windows and a low rounded roof of turf. It was reached by a narrow green path, and surrounded by a circle of green lawn, round which close bushes grew. It showed no lights.

Marmaduke unlocked the door, and light streamed out in friendly fas.h.i.+on. They slipped quickly in, and shut the light and themselves inside. They were in a wide hall from which several doors opened. 'Here we are!' said Marmaduke. 'Not a bad little place. We often use it for guests, since Brandy Hall is so frightfully full of Brandybucks. I have got it quietly ready in the last day or two.

'Splendid fellow! ' said Bingo. 'I was dreadfully sorry you had to miss that supper.'

'So was I,' said Marmaduke. 'And after hearing the accounts of Rory and Melissa (11) (both entirely different, but I expect equally true), I am sorrier still. But I had a merry ride with Gandalf and the dwarves and Elves.'(12) We met some more Elves on the way, (13) and there was some fine singing. I have never heard anything like it before.'

'Did Gandalf send me any message?' asked Bingo.

'No, nothing special. I asked him, when we got to Brandywine Bridge, if he wouldn't come along with me and wait for you, so as to be a guide and helping hand. But he said he was in a hurry. In fact, if you want to know, he said: ”Bingo is now old enough and foolish enough to look after himself for a bit.”'(14) ”I hope he is right,' said Bingo.

The hobbits hung up their cloaks and sticks, and piled their packs on the floor. Marmaduke went forward and flung open a closed door. Firelight came out and a puff of steam.

'Bath! ' cried Odo. 'O blessed Marmaduke! '

'Which way shall we go: eldest first, or quickest first? You will be last either way, Odo,' said Frodo.

'Ha! ha!' said Marmaduke. 'What kind of an innkeeper do you think I am? In that room there are three tubs; and also a copper over a merry furnace that seems to be nearly on the boil. There are also towels, soap, mats, jugs, and what not. Get inside!'

The three rushed in and shut the door. Marmaduke went into the kitchen, and while he was busy there he heard s.n.a.t.c.hes of competing songs mixed with the sound of splas.h.i.+ng and wallowing. Over all the rest Odo's voice suddenly rose in a chant: Bless the water O my feet and toes!

Bless it O my ten fingers!

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