No Smoking

“No?  What do you mean, no?”

Barliman pointed to the crudely-lettered sign above the bar.   “Can’t you read, Strider?  It says ‘No Smokking’.  The town councillors and worthies of Bree have decided that there’s to be no smoking in the inns or the streets or the town square.  I’m sorry, but you’ll have to put that there pipe of yours out – or leave.”

Aragorn took a last, long draw and inhaled deeply.  Then he knocked the weed out of his pipe and replaced it in his pack sorrowfully.

A smoking ban.  At the Pony! Whatever was the world coming to?

Author Notes:   Last night the regulars in our local pub were bemoaning the soon-to-be-introduced ban on smoking in all public places, including pubs and bars – and I suddenly wondered what Strider would make of it.