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‘Tips on what?’
Zimzi had come up quietly to where the two were talking. Both stood, and Derufin came round to pull out a chair for her. He chuckled as he sat down again saying Andwise had kindly offered to coach him on how to win the pie-eating contest at the Spring Faire.
‘Surely, it would be unfair of you to enter the contest,’ she protested. ‘You’re so much bigger than the Hobbit entrants.’
Andwise could not hold back his laughter at her assumption. ‘Never underestimate the capacity for food of one of my fellow Shirelings, Mistress Zimzi!’ He wiped his eyes of their mirthful tears and put on a more serious face. ‘Tis the rare Hobbit that cannot out-eat a man twice his size to my way of thinking,’ he intoned. ‘A grave responsibility is laid on us to enjoy the bounty of our land . . .’ He chuckled, seeing her take his pronouncements quite seriously.
She laughed, then, coloring a little as she realized he was jesting with her. ‘Well, then,’ she said, looking from one to the other. ‘I’ll bake the practice pies!’
‘Did someone say “pie”?’ A chorus of voices rang out as Gil and the other lads drew near . . .
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Eldest, that’s what I am . . . I knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.
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