cup, as heavy as he could carry, and cast one fearful eye upwards.
Smaug stirred a wing, opened a claw, the rumble of his snoring changed
its note.
     Then Bilbo fled. But the dragon did not wake-not yet but shifted into
other dreams of greed and violence, lying there in his stolen hall
while the little hobbit toiled back up the long tunnel. His heart was
beating and a more fevered shaking was in his legs than when he was
going down, but still he clutched the cup, and his chief thought was:
“I’ve done it! This will show them. ‘More like a grocer than a
burglar’ indeed! Well, we’ll hear no more of that.”
     Nor did he. Balin was overjoyed to see the hobbit again, and as
delighted as he was surprised. He picked
     It was midnight and clouds had covered the stars, but Bilbo lay with
his eyes shut, gasping and taking pleasure in the feel of the fresh
air again, and hardly noticing the excitement of the dwarves, or how
they praised him and patted him on the back and put themselves and all
their families for generations to come at his service.
     The dwarves were still passing the cup from hand to hand and talking
delightedly of the recovery of their treasure, when suddenly a vast
rumbling woke in the mountain underneath as if it was an old volcano