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

They had not been at table long, in fact they had hardly reached the
third cake, when there came another even louder ring at the bell.
"Excuse me!" said the hobbit, and off he went to the door.
"So you have got here at last!" was what he was going to say to Gandalf
this time. But it was not Gandalf. Instead there was a very old-looking
dwarf on the step with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he too hopped
inside as soon as the door was open, just as if he had been invited.
"I see they have begun to arrive already," he said when he caught sight
of Dwalin's green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it, and
"Balin at your service!" he said with his hand on his breast.
"Thank you!" said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the correct thing to
say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked
visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to
ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short,
and then he-as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful-he
might have to go without.
"Come along in, and have some tea!" he managed to say after taking a
deep breath.
"A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my
good sir," said Balin with the white beard. "But I don't mind some
cake-seed-cake, if you have any."
"Lots!" Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he
found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and
to the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked
that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.
When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like old
friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers). Bilbo plumped down the
beer and the cake in front of them, when loud came a ring at the bell again,
and then another ring.
"Gandalf for certain this time," he thought as he puffed along the
passage. But it was not. It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods,
silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools and
a spade. In they hopped, as soon as the door began to open-Bilbo was hardly
surprised at all.
"What can I do for you, my dwarves?" he said. "Kili at your service!"
said the one. "And Fili!" added the other; and they both swept off their
blue hoods and bowed.
"At yours and your family's!" replied Bilbo, remembering his manners
this time.
"Dwalin and Balin here already, I see," said Kili. "Let us join the
throng!"
"Throng!" thought Mr. Baggins. "I don't like the sound of that. I
really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits, and have a drink." He
had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat around the
table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins, and
the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did not
understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too adventurous-when,
ding-dong-a-ling-' dang, his bell rang again, as if some naughty little
hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off. "Someone at the door!" he
said, blinking. "Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fili.