get Bilbo back and go off tramping in the country with him. I love the
Shire. But I begin to wish, somehow, that I had gone too. I wonder if
I shall ever see him again.’
     ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf. ‘And I wonder many other things. Good-bye
now! Take care of yourself! Look out for me, especially at unlikely
times! Good-bye!’
     Frodo saw him to the door. He gave a final wave of his hand, and
walked off at a surprising pace; but Frodo thought the old wizard
looked unusually bent, almost as if he was carrying a great weight.
The evening was closing in, and his cloaked figure quickly vanished
into the twilight. Frodo did not see him again for a long time.
     

     Chapter 2 The Shadow of the Past
     The talk did not die down in nine or even ninety-nine days. The second
disappearance of Mr. Bilbo Baggins was discussed in Hobbiton, and
indeed all over the Shire, for a year and a day, and was remembered
much longer than that. It became a fireside-story for young hobbits;
and eventually Mad Baggins, who used to vanish with a bang and a flash
and reappear with bags of jewels and gold, became a favourite