hobbit- hole, and of the kettle singing. Not for the last time!
     Now Gandalf led the way. “We must not miss the road, or we shall be
done for,” he said. “We need food, for one thing, and rest in
reasonable safety-also it is very necessary to tackle the Misty
Mountains by the proper path, or else you will get lost in them, and
have to come back and start at the beginning again (if you ever get
back at all).”
     They asked him where he was making for, and he answered: “You are come
to the very edge of the Wild, as some of you may know. Hidden
somewhere ahead of us is the fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond
lives in the Last Homely House. I sent a message by my friends, and we
are expected.” That sounded nice and comforting, but they had not got
there yet, and it was not so easy as it sounds to find the Last Homely
House west of the Mountains. There seemed to be no trees and no
valleys and no hills to break the ground in front of them, only one
vast slope going slowly up and up to meet the feet of the nearest
mountain, a wide land the colour of heather and crumbling rock, with
patches and slashes of grass-green and moss-green showing where water
might be.
     Morning passed, afternoon came; but in all the silent waste there was