The Hobbit

second question first,” he said, “—but bless
     me! this is a splendid place for smoke rings!” Indeed for a long time they could get nothing more out of him, he was so busy
     sending smoke rings dodging round the pillars of the hall, changing them into all sorts of different shapes and colours, and
     setting them at last chasing one another out of the hole in the roof. They must have looked very queer from outside, popping
     out into the air one after another, green, blue, red, silver-grey, yellow, white; big ones, little ones; little ones dodging
     through big ones and joining into figure-eights, and going off like a flock of birds into the distance.
    “I have been picking out bear-tracks,” he said at last. “There must have been a regular bears’ meeting outside here last night.
     I soon saw that Beorn could not have made them all: there were far too many of them, and they were of various sizes too. I
     should say there were little bears, large bears, ordinary bears, and gigantic big bears, all dancing outside from dark to nearly dawn. They came from almost every direction, except from the
     west over the river, from the Mountains. In that direction only one set of footprints led—none coming, only ones going away
     from here. I followed these as far as the Carrock. There they disappeared into the river, but the water was too deep and strong
     beyond the rock for me to cross. It is easy enough, as you remember, to get from this bank to the Carrock by the ford, but
     on the other side is a cliff standing up from a swirling channel. I had to walk miles before I found a place where the river
     was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back again to pick up the tracks again. By that time it
     was too late for me to follow them far. They went straight off in the direction of the pine-woods on the east side of the
     Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the Wargs the night before last. And now I think I have answered
     your first question, too,” ended Gandalf, and he sat a long while silent.
    Bilbo thought he knew what the wizard meant. “What shall we do,” he cried, “if he leads all the Wargs and the goblins down
     here? We shall all be caught and killed! I thought you said he was not a friend of theirs.”
    “So I did. And don’t be silly! You had better go to bed, your wits are sleepy.”
    The hobbit felt quite crushed, and as there seemed nothing else to do he did go to bed; and while the dwarves were still singing
     songs he dropped asleep, still puzzling his little head about Beorn, till he dreamed a dream of hundreds of black bears dancing
     slow heavy dances round and round in the moonlight in the courtyard. Then he woke up when everyone else was asleep, and he
     heard the same scraping, scuffling, snuffling, and growling as before.
    Next morning they were all wakened by Beorn himself. “So here you all are still!” he said. He picked up the hobbit and laughed:
     “Not eaten up by Wargs or goblins or wicked bears yet I see”; and he poked Mr. Baggins’ waistcoat most disrespectfully. “Little
     bunny is getting nice and fat again on bread and honey,” he chuckled. “Come and have some more!”
    So they all went to breakfast with him. Beorn was most jolly for a change; indeed he seemed to be in a splendidly good humour
     and set them all laughing with his funny stories; nor did they have to wonder long where he had been or why he was so nice
     to them, for he told them himself. He had been over the river and right back up into the mountains—from which you can guess
     that he could travel quickly, in bear’s shape at any rate. From the burnt wolf-glade he had soon found out that part of their
     story was true; but he had found more than that: he had caught a Warg and a goblin wandering in the woods. From these he had
     got news: the goblin patrols were still hunting with Wargs for the dwarves, and they were fiercely angry because of the death
     of the Great Goblin, and also because of the burning of the chief wolf’s nose and the death from the wizard’s fire of many
     of his chief servants. So much they told him when he forced them, but he guessed there was more wickedness than this afoot,
     and that a great raid of the whole goblin army with their wolf-allies into the lands shadowed by the mountains might soon
     be made to find the dwarves, or to take vengeance on the men and creatures that lived there, and who they thought must