invented at the same moment.
     In the meanwhile, however, Bullroarer’s gentler descendant was
reviving in the drawing-room. After a while and a drink he crept
nervously to the door of the parlour. This is what he heard, Gloin
speaking: “Humph!” (or some snort more or less like that). “Will he
do, do you think? It is all very well for Gandalf to talk about this
hobbit being fierce, but one shriek like that in a moment of
excitement would be enough to wake the dragon and all his relatives,
and kill the lot of us. I think it sounded more like fright than
     In fact, if it bad not been for the sign on the door, I should have
been sure we had come to the wrong house. As soon as I clapped eyes on
the little fellow bobbing and puffing on the mat, I had my doubts. He
looks more like a grocer-than a burglar!”
     Then Mr. Baggins turned the handle and went in. The Took side had won.
He suddenly felt he would go without bed and breakfast to be thought
fierce. As for little fellow bobbing on the mat it almost made him
really fierce. Many a time afterwards the Baggins part regretted what
he did now, and he said to himself: “Bilbo, you were a fool; you
walked right in and put your foot in it.”
     “Pardon me,” he said, “if I have overheard words that you were saying.