"GL1" - читать интересную книгу автора (vol06)

was hung all over with lanterns. Even more promising was the
erection of a huge kitchen in a corner of the field. A draught of
cooks arrived. Excitement rose to its height. Then the weather
clouded over. That was on Friday, the eve of the party. Anxiety
grew intense. Then Saturday September [20th >] 22nd (6) actually
dawned. The sun got up, the clouds vanished, flags were un-
furled, and the fun began.
Mr Baggins called it a party - but it was several rolled into one
and mixed up. Practically everybody near at hand was invited to
something or other - very few were forgotten (by accident), and as
they turned up anyhow it did not matter. Bilbo met the guests (and
additions) at the gate in person. He gave away presents to all and
sundry - the latter were those that went out again by the back way
and came in again by the front for a second helping. He began with
the youngest and smallest, and came back again quickly to the
smallest and youngest. Hobbits give presents to other people on
their birthdays: not very expensive ones, of course. But it was not
a bad system. Actually in Hobbiton and Bywater, since every day
in the year was somebody's birthday, it meant that every hobbit
got a present (and sometimes more) almost every day of his life.
But they did not get tired of them. On this occasion the hobbit-fry
were wildly excited - there were toys the like of which they had
never seen before. As you have guessed, they came from Dale.
When they got inside the grounds the guests had songs, dances,
games - and of course food and drink. There were three official
meals: lunch, tea, and dinner (or supper); but lunch and tea were
marked chiefly by the fact that at those times everybody was
sitting down and eating at the same time. Drinking never stopped.
Eating went on pretty continuously from elevenses to six o'clock,
when the fireworks started.
The fireworks of course (as you at any rate have guessed) were
by Gandalf, and brought by him in person, and let off by him - the
main ones: there was generous distribution of squibs, crackers,
sparklers, torches, ' dwarf-candles, elf-fountains, goblin-barkers
and thunderclaps. They were of course superb. The art of Gandalf
naturally got the older the better. There were rockets like a flight
of scintillating birds singing with sweet voices; there were green
trees with trunks of twisted smoke: their leaves opened like a

whole spring unfolding in a few minutes, and their shining
branches dropped glowing flowers down upon the astonished
hobbits - only to disappear in a sweet scent before they touched
head hat or bonnet. There were fountains of butterflies that flew
into the trees; there were pillars of coloured fires that turned into
hovering eagles, or sailing ships, or a flight of swans; there were
red thunderstorms and showers of yellow rain; there was a forest
of silver spears that went suddenly up into the air with a yell like a
charging army and came down into The Water with a hiss like a
hundred hot snakes. And there was also one last thing in which
Gandalf rather overdid it - after all, he knew a great deal about