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Tim and Wren did their best to obey Cook and dried their eyes and picked up their forks to eat their breakfast. Little was said while the food lasted and Tim and Wren ate until they were full, taking the seconds that were freely offered. Ginger and Cook seemed anxious that they have whatever they needed and Tim felt awfully aware of it, though he was thankful.
When he was coming closer to being finished, Tim began to speak. He knew that Cook didn’t have all day to sit around and talk, so he would try to be as brief as possible, considering the circumstances.
“I don’t want to overburden you or anything,” he said, starting out and looking across the table at the hobbit. “And I wish I could answer more hopefully, but we really don’t have anybody we can go to. When - when Mama and Papa died, I had to make up my mind as to what to do quickly. I couldn’t stay, the last rent on the house was due and there was hardly enough money left to pay it. The landlord was kind enough to let us keep it, but it wasn’t enough, and I don’t have any of it left, though goodness knows I didn’t waste it.
“There was no work to be had in Bree...more and more people are coming in from the outside and no one needed a boy as small as me - begging your pardon as a hobbit, but I am rather little compared to the men there. We came here to the Shire because it’s the closest civilized place hoping to find something to do. We don’t have any relatives close by, Papa brought Mama from far out East. If you’re willing to take me, I can work and do a lot...I know how to handle horses pretty well, and I can work in the garden (Ginger mentioned that) and I can do other odd jobs about the place. Wren can learn how to cook - she’s smart - or she could clean or do whatever.” Shut up, Tim, before you sound as desperate as you are. “I’d have to ask,” he added, dropping his eyes quickly, and then looked back up at her, “that you didn’t send her out into the Common Room. A lot of people, you know, and she’s shy, and I wouldn’t like it, I don’t think.”
He came to a halt and stopped with his mouth open in surprise at what he had said. His words sounded as though he assumed that Cook would hire them then and there and he knew she had no obligation and no real reason to. He clapped his jaw shut and turned his eyes away as he scowled in furious anger at his presumptuous speech, and picked at the little food remaining on his plate with his fork.
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