Chapter Ten: The Thieves

After breakfast the next morning, the hobbits split up to look for the bird—Sam and Frodo went west, towards the creek where they had fished the day before, and Milo and Merry went east, the way they had come. They walked for several hours, searching under every bush and rock they came upon, but without success. Merry had been slightly more cheerful when they had started, but as time went on, he became more and more depressed.

Finally, at around noon, Milo decided that they should head back to camp and find Frodo and Sam. Merry perked up a bit at the thought of food, and asked Milo again to teach him how to carve. "If we don’t find my bird," he said, "I can at least make him something else." Milo agreed, and they decided that Merry would have his first carving lesson that evening.

Once they got back to camp, Milo started making some luncheon, and Merry was dispatched to find Frodo and Sam. That did not take them long, for they had not gone far, and he found them refilling their water bottles in the stream.

"Did you find anything?" Merry asked as he approached.

They looked up. "Well, I’m not sure," Frodo said. "We found two pairs of footprints that are too fresh to be ours from yesterday, and too old to be Sam's and mine from today." He led Merry to a large sandbar in the middle of the creek, and there were indeed two pairs of footprints. They were hobbit sized, but too large for Frodo, Sam or Merry, and slightly too small to be Milo’s.

Merry knelt down and studied them, though he honestly had no idea of how to gain any information from them. "How did you find these?" he asked after a moment, looking curiously at Frodo.

His older cousin shrugged. "I didn’t. Sam did. Leave it to him to find something like this—I wouldn’t have thought to look here on this sandbar, but of course Sam knew better."

Sam came over to them after refilling all of their water bottles. "Shouldn’t we be headin’ back to camp?" he asked. "I think I smell lunch cooking." The other two nodded. "And we should tell Milo about the footprints," Frodo decided.

The three hobbits climbed up the bank, which was steep at this point, and headed back toward camp. There, Milo had luncheon ready for them. They ate quickly, for upon hearing of their discovery, Milo decided to follow the direction the footprints went after lunch.

***

"How much further are we going to go, Milo?" Merry moaned as he stumbled over a tree root. Frodo reached out to steady him and Milo answered over his shoulder. "Not much further." He squinted up at the sun. "We’ll head back to camp in a few minutes."

As they traveled, the trees gradually became thicker until the thick green leaves all but completely blocked out the sunlight. At last, they came to the edge of a clearing. Peering through the tall bushes that surrounded it, Merry gave a cry of joy. "We’re back!" he exclaimed. "We made it to camp!"

The hobbits entered the clearing and looked around. At first, it did look like their camp; there were two tents, and the remains of a meal near the fire. But something was amiss here. There were more trees surrounding the site, and the patch of mushrooms at the far side was absent.

As the older three walked around the campsite, Merry entered one of the tents. Like the rest of the camp, it was deserted, but just as he was leaving, he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. Curiously, he turned and looked more closely at the object. It was small, whitish-brown in color, and was wrapped partially in a handkerchief. Unwrapping it, Merry’s breath caught in amazement. It was several moments before he found his voice enough to cry, "My robin! I found my robin!"

Milo, Frodo and Sam rushed into the tent and knelt down beside Merry. "Why it is your bird!" Frodo exclaimed happily.

"However did it come here?" Sam said in astonishment.

Merry was carefully examining his robin all over for any nicks or dents. He found none, and wrapping it back up in its handkerchief, he put it safely in his pocket. "I don’t know," he said at last. "But this certainly isn’t our camp. I wonder who’s it is?"

Milo shook his head. "Well, whoever’s it is, I don’t really fancy meeting them right now. Let’s head back to our camp."

***

Even after finding his robin, Merry was no less enthusiastic about a carving lesson, and Milo kept his promise of giving him one. As they ate supper, Milo gave Merry his pocketknife, picked up a good chunk of wood, and, placing his hand over his younger cousin’s, showed him the right position and strokes of the knife. Merry’s small, nimble fingers seemed made to carve; during that first lesson, he was able to make a small creature that somewhat resembled a dog, which he gave to Frodo.

That night, as Merry and Sam slept in the tent, Milo and Frodo sat around the campfire and talked for a while.

"Who’s camp do you think that was?" Frodo asked, staring into the flames.

"I don’t know. What do you think?"

Frodo shook his head. "I’m not sure. I have my guesses though."

Milo raised his eyebrows. "Do you? And what are your guesses?"

"Well, it isn’t fair to accuse someone when they aren’t here to defend themselves, but I think that it may have been Lotho and Ted."

"What makes you think it was them?"

"I could be wrong—I hope I am. But we met them in the Ivy Bush, and I’m afraid Merry said something that made them upset."

"Hmmm. What would they want with a wooden bird?"

Frodo shrugged. "I’ve no idea. But it was wonderful craftsmanship, you know. Maybe they wanted to sell it."

"Could be."

They lapsed into silence for a few moments, just listening to the wind in the leaves, and the fire crackling. Presently, Milo patted Frodo’s shoulder. "Well, time for bed. It must be near midnight."

Frodo nodded. "Good night, Milo," he said around a small yawn.

Milo smiled and ruffled his younger cousin’s dark curls before giving him a playful push toward the tent. "Sleep well."

***

"We’re already going back?" Merry exclaimed in dismay the next morning.

"Hard to believe, isn’t it?" Frodo agreed, shouldering his pack and coming up beside him. He turned to Sam, who was still in the tent, packing. "Be sure not to take too much, Sam. My pack feels suspiciously light."

"Yes, Mr. Frodo," came the reply from inside, and Sam emerged, pack on. "Everything’s packed." Frodo smiled but secretly suspected that his faithful gardener had taken more than his fair share of the load, and he decided to look into it later.

Milo emerged from his tent, carrying his pack, which he set down by the remains of the campfire. "All packed, lads?" he asked. Frodo, Sam and Merry nodded, and Milo proceeded to take down the tents and roll them up so that he could tie them to his pack. When this was done, he shouldered his pack and they started off toward Bywater.

When they stopped for lunch (which consisted mainly of some mushrooms that Merry had found along the way), Frodo and Milo convinced Sam to give Frodo some of his load—though Frodo still felt that Sam had too much—and they continued on their way.

As they didn’t stop often, they made it to the clearing where they had stayed on their first day in only a few hours. From there, Bywater was about two hours away.

When they finally made it to the Burrows’ hole, they were staggering with exhaustion. Peony, her chestnut curls in two thick braids, and her dress and face spotted with flour, seemed like an angel to the weary boys as she led them into the living room. Nothing had ever felt so good as collapsing in the soft armchairs and sipping warm tea. The younger lads were so tired that Milo and Frodo told most of the story while they only occasionally gave supporting nods or shook their heads. Peony listened with interest as she put some ginger cookies in the oven and sat down beside Milo.

When they had finished the story, they were silent for a while, until Peony suddenly jumped up. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I forgot! Frodo, you have two letters from your Uncle Bilbo. Why don’t you read them aloud to us?" She reached into her apron pocket and pulled out the letters. Frodo read them silently first, then the first one out loud:

"‘Dear Frodo,

'Glad to hear all is well there. So, you’re staying with the Burrowses, are you? Wonderful. Has Milo taken you camping yet? Be sure to ask him why he hasn’t answered any of my letters lately!

'Mrs. Gamgee helped me contact the Broadbelts, and I wrote to them about staying there with you lads. Mr. Broadbelt responded right away (it turns out he learned to read and write when he was a lad) and it looks as though I shall be staying with you lads, for a while, at least. I hope you won’t mind – I’m boring company, I know.

‘I would send you the letter, but I’d rather give it to you in person. I will say, however, that he had some very nice comments about you, Frodo, and the other lads. He really appreciated your help while you were there.’" Frodo faltered here and blushed. He glanced at Merry, who was grinning, and Sam, who was also blushing and concentrating on his cup of tea. Patting Sam’s shoulder, he continued:

‘Well, I fear I must be going. Always more to write in my book! Take care!

‘Much love,

‘Bilbo’"

Frodo finished the letter and fell silent. "Well?" Peony prompted. "Aren’t you going to read the other?" Frodo swallowed hard, and reluctantly opened the second letter.

"‘Dear Frodo,

‘Right after I finished writing my last letter to you, who else but Lobelia shows up at the door! She was furious, hardly waiting for me to open the door before storming in. She was nearly screaming, something about you having stolen something from her "poor, dear Lotho." She said that Lotho had made a wooden robin and was planning to sell it in Bywater, but that someone had stolen it. When I asked her what made her think that you would have taken it, she only shouted something about Brandybucks and their being notorious for thieving. I finally presuaded her to leave, but I’ve no doubt that she’ll be back. Do you know anything of what she’s talking about, Frodo?

‘I’m going to have a cup of tea to soothe the headache I’ve got. I’m eagerly awaiting your letter – no doubt that will boost my spirits.

Much love,

Bilbo’"

TBC...