Page 108 - The Hobbit

He woke up suddenly and sat up scratching his head. He could not make out

where he was at all, nor why he felt so hungry; for he had forgotten everything
that had happened since they started their journey that May morning long ago.
The last thing that he remembered was the party at the hobbit's house, and they

had great difficulty in making him believe their tale of all the many adventures
they had had since.
When he heard that there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept, for he felt
very weak and wobbly in the legs. "Why ever did I wake up!" he cried. "I was

having such beautiful dreams. I dreamed I was walking in a forest rather like this
one, only lit with torches on the trees and lamps swinging from the branches and
fires burning on the ground; and there was a great feast going on, going on for

ever. A woodland king was there with a crown of leaves, and there was a merry
singing, and I could not count or describe the things there were to eat and drink."
"You need not try," said Thorin. "In fact if you can't talk about something else,
you had better be silent. We are quite annoyed enough with you as it is. If you

hadn't waked up, we should have left you to your idiotic dreams in the forest; you
are no joke to carry even after weeks of short commons."
There was nothing now to be done but to tighten the belts round their empty

stomachs, and hoist their empty sacks and packs, and trudge along the track
without any great hope of ever getting to the end before they lay down and died of
starvation. This they did all that day, going very slowly and wearily, while
Bombur kept on wailing that his legs would not carry him and that he wanted to

lie down and sleep.
"No you don't!" they said. "Let your legs take their share, we have carried you
far enough."
All the same he suddenly refused to go a step further and flung himself on the

ground. "Go on, if you must," he said. "I'm just going to lie here and sleep and
dream of food, if I can't get it any other way. I hope I never wake up again."
At that very moment Balin, who was a little way ahead, called out: "What was
that? I thought I saw a twinkle of light in the forest."

They all looked, and a longish way off, it seemed, they saw a red twinkle in
the dark; then another and another sprang out beside it. Even Bombur got up, and
they hurried along then, not caring if it was trolls or goblins. The light was in front

of them and to the left of the path, and when at last they had drawn level with it, it
seemed plain that torches and fires were burning under the trees, but a good way
off their track.