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Bilbo shouts over his shoulder and down the hall. "Frodo, Gandalf's coming today. Could you cut some flowers for my study? There's a good lad! The roses seem particularly fine this morning!" Frodo enters from the other room, still buttoning his shirt. "I'd be glad to, Bilbo, but Mr. Gamgee will run me off before I have time to so much as take a sniff, not to mention a stem." [grinning broadly]" He says I tramp up his beds with my clumsy feet!" Bilbo smiles, "I'm sure you do, lad, but we won't see Hamfast about the place today. He's got other things on his mind. Bell's had that baby at last, just past midnight. I heard a commotion down there and a cry, so I went down to see the new arrival before you decided to open your eyes. It's a boy, and with as fine a pair of lungs as I've heard of in many a day!" [happy sigh] "It'll be good to have a little one playing in the garden again!" Frodo pours them both a cup of tea. "And he'll have to do what I say, because I'm older!!" Bilbo sips his tea, thoughtfully. "There's something about him, Frodo, this new little fellow, something about his eyes. There's great kindness there, and something else…He looks as if he knows something that he shouldn't at so tender an age, something important and full of sorrow." Bilbo drains his cup, and raises his eyes to look at Frodo. "I hope to convince Ham to let me teach this one his letters, if he shows an interest…and somehow, I think he will. He's not like his brothers and sisters, fine young hobbits though they are." Scene changes: Frodo and Gandalf stand over a roughly woven basket. From the depths of the basket, a baby looks up at them, precious, but solemn and full of innocent intensity. Frodo looks at the infant, considering him as only an older child could do. "I suppose he'll do. I like his eyes, though, I must say. I've never seen a baby with eyes that. It's like looking at a person's eyes." Gandalf smiles. "Babies ARE people, young Frodo. They are fresh to the world. They haven't yet forgotten why they are here or who sent them and for that alone they deserve our care and respect. Unfortunately, that knowledge leaves them before they can tell it, so it's largely forgotten. "(Gandalf's voice grows deep as he glances down at the boy beside him) "No being is put into this world without a specific purpose to serve. It is only that often the purpose is forgotten, unless by some great event the person is reminded of it, or he stumbles upon by sheer chance." Frodo smiles and puts out a finger for infant to hold on to. "Look how he grabs my finger already!" (Frodo looks up at Gandalf, grinning from ear to ear) "I think he likes me!" [The wizard chuckles] "He does indeed!" "Gandalf, if everyone has a purpose, what do you think his purpose is?" Gandalf's voice grows soft and serious again. "This one has a promise to keep, Frodo, an old promise, made long before he came to the Shire." Frodo remembered that conversation, but not for many years. It came back to him in a little boat, in the middle of the Great River, far away from Hobbiton. He remembered it on the darkest day of his life, when either a great event reminded him, or else he stumbled upon it by sheer chance. |