Page 213 - The Hobbit

journey. This was much as it had been before, except that the company was

smaller, and more silent; also this time there were no trolls. At each point on the
road Bilbo recalled the happenings and the words of a year ago-it seemed to him
more like ten-so that, of course, he quickly noted the place where the pony had

fallen in the river, and they had turned aside for their nasty adventure with Tom
and Bert and Bill. Not far from the road they found the gold of the trolls, which
they had buried, still hidden and untouched. "I have enough to last me my time,"
said Bilbo, when they had dug it up. "You had better take this, Gandalf. I daresay

you can find a use for it."
"Indeed I can!" said the wizard. "But share and share alike! You may find you
have more needs than you expect."

So they put the gold in bags and slung them on the ponies, who were not at all
pleased about it. After that their going was slower, for most of the time they
walked. But the land was green and there was much grass through which the
hobbit strolled along contentedly. He mopped his face with a red silk

handkerchief-no! not a single one of his own had survived, he had borrowed this
one from Elrond –for now June had brought summer, and the weather was bright
and hot again.

As all things come to an end, even this story, a day came at last when they
were in sight of the country where Bilbo had been born and bred, where the shapes
of the land and of the trees were as well known to him as his hands and toes.
Coming to a rise he could see his own Hill in the distance, and he stopped

suddenly and said:

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.