The Hobbit

path! No other idea would come into Bilbo’s tired head. He just sat staring in front of him at the endless trees;
     and after a while they all fell silent again. All except Balin. Long after the others had stopped talking and shut their eyes,
     he kept on muttering and chuckling to himself.
    “Gollum! Well I’m blest! So that’s how he sneaked past me, is it? Now I know! Just crept quietly along did you, Mr. Baggins?
     Buttons all over the doorstep! Good old Bilbo—Bilbo—Bilbo—bo—bo—bo—” And then he fell asleep, and there was complete silence
     for a long while.
    All of a sudden Dwalin opened an eye, and looked round at them. “Where is Thorin?” he asked.
    It was a terrible shock. Of course there were only thirteen of them, twelve dwarves and the hobbit. Where indeed was Thorin?
     They wondered what evil fate had befallen him, magic or dark monsters; and shuddered as they lay lost in the forest. There
     they dropped off one by one into uncomfortable sleep full of horrible dreams, as evening wore to black night; and there we
     must leave them for the present, too sick and weary to set guards or to take turns at watching.
    Thorin had been caught much faster than they had. You remember Bilbo falling like a log into sleep, as he stepped into a circle
     of light? The next time it had been Thorin who stepped forward, and as the lights went out he fell like a stone enchanted.
     All the noise of the dwarves lost in the night, their cries as the spiders caught them and bound them, and all the sounds of the battle next day, had passed over him unheard. Then the Wood-elves
     had come to him, and bound him, and carried him away.
    The feasting people were Wood-elves, of course. These are not wicked folk. If they have a fault it is distrust of strangers.
     Though their magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were
     more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended
     from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves
     went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft in the
     making of beautiful and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World. In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered
     in the twilight of our Sun and Moon, but loved best the stars; and they wandered in the great forests that grew tall in lands
     that are now lost. They dwelt most often by the edges of the woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt, or to ride
     and run over the open lands by moonlight or starlight; and after the coming of Men they took ever more and more to the gloaming
     and the dusk. Still elves they were and remain, and that is Good People.
    In a great cave some miles within the edge of Mirkwood on its eastern side there lived at this time their greatest king. Before
     his huge doors of stone a river ran out of the heights of the forest and flowed on and out into the marshes at the feet of
     the high wooded lands. This great cave, from which countless smaller ones opened out on every side, wound far underground and had many
     passages and wide halls; but it was lighter and more wholesome than any goblin-dwelling, and neither so deep nor so dangerous.
     In fact the subjects of the king mostly lived and hunted in the open woods, and had houses or huts on the ground and in the
     branches. The beeches were their favourite trees. The king’s cave was his palace, and the strong place of his treasure, and
     the fortress of his people against their enemies.
    It was also the dungeon of his prisoners. So to the cave they dragged Thorin—not too gently, for they did not love dwarves,
     and thought he was an enemy. In ancient days they had had wars with some of the dwarves, whom they accused of stealing their
     treasure. It is only fair to say that the dwarves gave a different account, and said that they only took what was their due,
     for the elf-king had bargained with them to shape his raw gold and silver, and had afterwards refused to give them their pay.
     If the elf-king had a weakness it was for treasure, especially for silver and white gems; and though his hoard was rich, he
     was ever eager for more, since he had not yet as great a treasure as other elf-lords of old. His people neither mined nor
     worked metals or