IV.  Cue:  Role Models

I Want to Be Just Like ...

            If you asked him, young Bilbo wished to be just like his father Bungo Baggins:  steady, trustworthy, dependable, predictable; responsible.  After all, everybody in Hobbiton respected Bungo Baggins, whose one unpredictable act had been to marry Belladonna Took.

            Not that Belladonna actually did much to shock the neighbors.  No, she was an exemplary wife and mother--a pillar of the community.  (Except for her lamentable habit of singing comic songs in public, and ....)

            But after trips to visit his grandfather, Thain Gerontius, sometimes Bilbo wished to be like Grandda instead.

            “Belladonna, your son is playing at dragons and treasure again!”