"GL1" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

weather was fine, and there was talk of a display of fireworks such
as had not been seen since the days of Old Took.

Time drew nearer. Odd-looking carts with odd-looking pack-
ages began to toil up the Hill to Bag-end (the residence of Mr Bilbo
Baggins). They arrived by night, and startled folk peered out of
their doors to gape at them. Some were driven by outlandish folk
singing strange songs, elves, or heavily hooded dwarves. There
was one huge creaking wain with great lumbering tow-haired Men
on it that caused quite a commotion. It bore a large B under a
crown.(3) It could not get across the bridge by the mill, and the Men
carried the goods on their backs up the hill - stumping on the
hobbit road like elephants. All the beer at the inn vanished as if
down a drain when they came downhill again. Later in the week a
cart came trotting in in broad daylight. An old man was driving it
all alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat and a long grey cloak.
Hobbit boys and girls ran after the cart all the way up the hill. It
had a cargo of fireworks, that they could see when it began to
unload: great bundles of them, labelled with a red G.
'G for grand,' they shouted; and that was as good a guess as they
could make at its meaning. Not many of their elders guessed
better: hobbits have rather short memories as a rule. As for the
little old man,(4) he vanished inside Bilbo's front door and never
reappeared.

There might have been some grumbling about 'dealing locally',
but suddenly orders began to pour out from Bag-end, and into
every shop in the neighbourhood (even widely measured). Then
people stopped being merely curious, and became enthusiastic.
They began to tick off the days on the calendar till Bilbo's
birthday, and they began to watch for the postman, hoping for
invitations.
Then the invitations began pouring out, and the post-office
of Hobbiton was blocked, and Bywater post-office was snowed
under, and voluntary postmen were called for. There was a
constant stream of them going up The Hill to Bag-end carrying
letters containing hundreds of polite variations on 'thank-you, I
shall certainly come.' During all this time, for days and days,
indeed since September [10th >] 8th, Bilbo had not been seen out
or about by anyone. He either did not answer the bell, or came to
the door and cried 'Sorry - Busy!' round the edge of it. They
thought he was only writing invitation cards, but they were not
quite right.
Finally the field to the south of his front door - it was bordered
by his kitchen garden on one side and the Hill road on the other -

began to be covered with tents and pavilions. The three hobbit-
families of Bagshot Row just below it were immensely excited.
There was one specially large pavilion, so large that the tree that
stood in the field was inside it, standing growing in the middle.(5) It