The Hobbit

longer anyway,” said Bombur, and Bilbo heartily agreed with him. They argued
     about it backwards and forwards for a long while, until they agreed at length to send out a couple of spies, to creep near
     the lights and find out more about them. But then they could not agree on who was to be sent: no one seemed anxious to run
     the chance of being lost and never finding his friends again. In the end, in spite of warnings, hunger decided them, because
     Bombur kept on describing all the good things that were being eaten, according to his dream, in the woodland feast; so they
     all left the path and plunged into the forest together.
    After a good deal of creeping and crawling they peered round the trunks and looked into a clearing where some trees had been
     felled and the ground levelled. There were many people there, elvish-looking folk, all dressed in green and brown and sitting
     on sawn rings of the felled trees in a great circle. There was a fire in their midst and there were torches fastened to some
     of the trees round about; but most splendid sight of all: they were eating and drinking and laughing merrily.
    The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and
     scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food. No sooner had the first stepped into the clearing
     than all the lights went out as if by magic. Somebody kicked the fire and it went up in rockets of glittering sparks and vanished.
     They were lost in a completely lightless dark and they could not even find one another, not for a long time at any rate. After
     blundering frantically in the gloom, falling over logs, bumping crash into trees, and shouting and calling till they must
     have waked everything in the forest for miles, at last they managed to gather themselves in a bundle and count themselves
     by touch. By that time they had, of course, quite forgotten in what direction the path lay, and they were all hopelessly lost,
     at least till morning.
    There was nothing for it but to settle down for the night where they were; they did not even dare to search on the ground
     for scraps of food for fear of becoming separated again. But they had not been lying long, and Bilbo was only just getting
     drowsy, when Dori, whose turn it was to watch first, said in a loud whisper:
    “The lights are coming out again over there, and there are more than ever of them.”
    Up they all jumped. There, sure enough, not far away were scores of twinkling lights, and they heard the voices and the laughter
     quite plainly. They crept slowly towards them, in a single line, each touching the back of the one in front. When they got
     near Thorin said: “No rushing forward this time! No one is to stir from hiding till I say. I shall send Mr. Baggins alone first
     to talk to them. They won’t be frightened of him—(‘What about me of them?’ thought Bilbo)—and any way I hope they won’t do
     anything nasty to him.”
    When they got to the edge of the circle of lights they pushed Bilbo suddenly from behind. Before he had time to slip on his
     ring, he stumbled forward into the full blaze of the fire and torches. It was no good. Out went all the lights again and complete
     darkness fell.
    If it had been difficult collecting themselves before, it was far worse this time. And they simply could not find the hobbit.
     Every time they counted themselves it only made thirteen. They shouted and called: “Bilbo Baggins! Hobbit! You dratted hobbit!
     Hi! hobbit, confusticate you, where are you?” and other things of that sort, but there was no answer.
    They were just giving up hope, when Dori stumbled across him by sheer luck. In the dark he fell over what he thought was a
     log, and he found it was the hobbit curled up fast asleep. It took a deal of shaking to wake him, and when he was awake he
     was not pleased at all.
    “I was having such a lovely dream,” he grumbled, “all about having a most gorgeous dinner.”
    “Good heavens! he has gone like Bombur,” they said. “Don’t tell us about dreams. Dream-dinners aren’t any good, and we can’t
     share them.”
    “They are the best I am likely to get in this beastly place,” he muttered, as he lay down beside the dwarves and tried to
     go back to sleep and find his dream again. But that was not the last of the lights in the forest. Later when the night must have been getting old, Kili who was watching
     then, came and