over again, and it was from little Bilbo that they seemed to expect to
get the answers. From which you can see that they had changed their
opinion of Mr. Baggins very much, and had begun to have a great
respect for him (as Gandalf had said they would). Indeed they really
expected him to think of some wonderful plan for helping them, and
were not merely grumbling. They knew only too well that they would
soon all have been dead, if it had not been for the hobbit; and they
thanked him many times. Some of them even got up and bowed right to
the ground before him, though they fell over with the effort, and
could not get on their legs again for some time. Knowing the truth
about the vanishing did not lessen their opinion of Bilbo at all; for
they saw that he had some wits, as well as luck and a magic ring-and
all three are very useful possessions. In fact they praised him so
much that Bilbo began to feel there really was something of a bold
adventurer about himself after all, though he I would have felt a lot
bolder still, if there had been anything to eat.
     But there was nothing, nothing at all; and none of them Were fit to go
and look for anything, or to search for the lost path. The lost path!
No other idea would come into Bilbo’s tired head. He just sat staring
in front of him at the endless trees; and after a while they all fell