Ch. 21 - Suspicious Sam – A Series of Drabbles

Part I

“I don’t trust him, Mister Frodo. I won’t be sleeping none too soon tonight. But you sleep. You need it. I’ll just sit here beside you.”

“Sam,” Frodo sighed heavily. “Lord Elrond himself picked him to be one of the Fellowship. Would he not have known if there was danger from him?”

“That sounds right and all, Mister Frodo, but as my old Gaffer would say, ‘You don’t stand behind a cow, no matter how friendly it seems.”

Frodo could not help but laugh aloud. “Sam, dear Sam. I will listen to you then, if that is how you feel.”

Part II

“But Sam, I promise you. Gandalf has said words over Bill. He will be protected now. You need not worry.”

“There are wolves, Strider. I remember Bilbo’s tales of the wolves. ‘Twas only the eagles that saved him an’ the dwarves from them.”

Strider smiled.

“I don’t think an eagle could pick up Bill,” Sam muttered to himself as he patted the pony’s nose. “Probably not even an oliphant could lift him, bein’ as he’s gotten so fat.”

Strider’s smile grew wider.

“I believe we should keep Bill here a little longer,” Boromir chimed in.

Sam looked up in hope.

Part III

“Minas Tirith, Mister Frodo. Do you think we’ll ever see it?”

“That is not our destination, Sam.”

“Well and I know it, Mister Frodo, but it sounds like a grand place.”

“He does not stop talking about it, does he?”

“No, that he doesn’t, but he loves it as much as I love the Shire; I can tell.”

Sam’s eyes dreamed and Frodo smiled.

“I’m missing the Shire already. Spring is coming right quick and the flowers I planted under Mister Bilbo’s windows should be close to blooming. Do you suppose we might be home in time for the harvest?”