"J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (reprint)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

had been away over The Hill and across The Water on business of his own
since they were all small hobbit-boys and hobbit-girls.
All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a
staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf
over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.
"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and
the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy
eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. "What do you
mean?" be said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good
morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it
is morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe
of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit
down and have a fill of mine! There's no hurry, we have all the day before
us!" Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew
out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without
breaking and floated away over The Hill.
"Very pretty!" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings
this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am
arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone."
"I should think so - in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have
no use for adventures. Nasty .disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late
for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them," said our Mr. Baggins,
and stuck one thumb behind his braces, and blew out another even bigger
smoke-ring. Then he took out his morning letters, and begin to read,
pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was
not quite his sort, and wanted him to go away. But the old man did not move.
He stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit without saying
anything, till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little cross.
"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here,
thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he
meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now
you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I
move off."
"Not at all, not at all, my dear sir! Let me see, I don't think I know
your name?"
"Yes, yes, my dear sir - and I do know your name, Mr. Bilbo Baggins.
And you do know my name, though you don't remember that I belong to it. I am
Gandalf, and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be
good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son, as if I was selling buttons at the
door!"
"Gandalf, Gandalf! Good gracious me! Not the wandering wizard that gave
Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never
came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful
tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of
princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons? Not the man that used to
make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used
to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great
lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all