Chapter 58. Nearly the Last Pause

Samwise stopped reading and took a deep breath. The log on the fire cracked and sent a shower of sparks upward as it split. Fastred rose from his seat, put a poker to good use, and added another log. He glanced over Sam’s shoulder.

’The handwriting changes,’ he said.

’Yes,’ Sam sighed. ‘That’s the last of what Mr Frodo wrote, before he misplaced these pages. The rest was finished by another hand.’

’Whose? Yours?’ Elanor asked.

Her father smiled at her. ‘A little of it,’ he said. ‘But someone else did a bit of writing, to finish the story. See if you can guess.’

’Master Merry!’ Elfstan guessed. ‘He likes to write. He wrote all those books on herb-lore and history...’

’That would be a good guess,’ Sam said, ‘but listen to the last few chapters before you offer an opinion.’ He looked to Elanor. ‘There’s not much left,’ he said. ‘We ought to finish before the middle night, unless you want to send them off to bed now and finish on the morrow.’

There was a clamour of pleas from the young hobbits while a glance passed between Fastred and Elanor. She smiled and said, ‘I don’t think we ought to stay up into the middle night, Dad.’

A disappointed chorus greeted her words, dying down at Fastred’s stern look.

’Can you stay over one more day?’ he asked Rosie and Leotred.

’We would hate to miss the end of the story!’ Rose said with a look at her husband.

’One more day,’ he agreed.

’Very well,’ Sam said. ‘We’ll finish on the morrow.’