[Arry]

“Oh, aye, the Greenway. Right after the war I wouldna have gone down it myself. But it’s been twelve years now, and I’d wager that anywhere in the Shire is a safe place to go. I have to say that since Master Meriadoc and Master Peregrin came home to stay, and our own Master Gamgee, of course, the Shiriff’s have done a good job driving the undesirables from the Shire bounds.”

“Now outside the four farthings I wouldn’t think of traveling without my stout walking stick by my side. And to be honest I only go as far Bree, and that but once a year to visit my wife’s sister in Archet.”

Andwise signaled to one of the servers and asked for a mug of stout, sweet tea. “And bring the lady here what she’d like, if you please,” he added. His pipe had gone out and he spent a few moments fiddling with it, then relit it. The smoke from the bowl puffed upward in small rings, soon stretched out in the afternoon’s air and disappeared. “You know, though,” he said, a sudden memory coming back to him. “Just a short while ago one of our own Shiriff’s and an Elf from the Inn and a man from Rohan, or some such eastern place were here at the Inn. They’d come back from the lake north of the Shire. Nenuial, up there by the Evendim Hills – where that old city of men is . . . let me just think now . . .”

“Annuminas,” came the reply as Derufin sat himself down on the other side of Jinniver.

“That’s it! The High King’s city. Well, anyways, they went up there to rescue another fellow from Rohan. Terrible time they had of it, too. Some spawn of the Shadow in the East was there . . .” He shuddered as he recollected the telling of the tale. “They drove it off and all ended well, I heard. But it still scares the bejeebers off me that it was so near us.”

Taking out his pouch of pipeweed, Andwise offered some to the pensive Derufin who sat pushing his dessert about on his plate. “What about you, Stablemaster?” he asked. “You were in the war, I’ve heard tell. What’s your feelings about the Shire . . . safe or no . . .?”