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.The only thing that he did as DeputyMayor was to reduce the Shirriffs to their proper functions and numbers.Thetask of hunting out the last remnant of the ruffians was left to Merry andPippin, and it was soon done.The southern gangs, after hearing the news of theBattle of Bywater, fled out of the land and offered little resistance to theThain.Before the Year’s End the few survivors were rounded up in the woods,and those that surrendered were shown to the borders.Meanwhile the labour of repair went on apace, and Sam was kept very busy.Hobbits can work like bees when the mood and the need comes on them.Now therewere thousands of willing hands of all ages, from the small but nimble ones ofthe hobbit lads and lasses to the well-worn and horny ones of the gaffers andgammers.Before Yule not a brick was left standing of the new Shirriff-housesor of anything that had been built by ‘Sharkey’s Men’; but the bricks were usedto repair many an old hole, to make it snugger and drier.Great stores of goodsand food, and beer, were found that had been hidden away by the ruffians insheds and barns and deserted holes, and especially in the tunnels at MichelDelving and in the old quarries at Scary; so that there was a great deal bettercheer that Yule than anyone had hoped for.One of the first things done in Hobbiton, before even the removal of the newmill, was the clearing of the Hill and Bag End, and the restoration of BagshotRow.The front of the new sand-pit was all levelled and made into a largesheltered garden, and new holes were dug in the southward face, back into theHill, and they were lined with brick.The Gaffer was restored to Number Three;and he said often and did not care who heard it:‘It’s an ill wind as blows nobody no good, as I always say.And All’s well asends Better!’There was some discussion of the name that the new row should be given.BattleGardens was thought of, or Better Smials.But after a while in sensiblehobbit-fashion it was just called New Row.It was a purely Bywater joke torefer to it as Sharkey’s End.The trees were the worst loss and damage, for at Sharkey’s bidding they hadbeen cut down recklessly far and wide over the Shire; and Sam grieved over thismore than anything else.For one thing, this hurt would take long to heal, andonly his great-grandchildren, he thought, would see the Shire as it ought tobe.Then suddenly one day, for he had been too busy for weeks to give a thought tohis adventures, he remembered the gift of Galadriel.He brought the box out andshowed it to the other Travellers (for so they were now called by everyone),and asked their advice.‘I wondered when you would think of it,’ said Frodo.‘Open it!’Inside it was filled with a grey dust, soft and fine, in the middle of whichwas a seed, like a small nut with a silver shale.‘What can I do with this?’said Sam.‘Throw it in the air on a breezy day and let it do its work!’ said Pippin.‘On what?’ said Sam.‘Choose one spot as a nursery, and see what happens to the plants there,’ saidMerry.‘But I’m sure the Lady would not like me to keep it all for my own garden, nowso many folk have suffered,’ said Sam.‘Use all the wits and knowledge you have of your own, Sam,’ said Frodo, ‘andthen use the gift to help your work and better it.And use it sparingly.Thereis not much here, and I expect every grain has a value.’So Sam planted saplings in all the places where specially beautiful or belovedtrees had been destroyed, and he put a grain of the precious dust in the soilat the root of each.He went up and down the Shire in this labour; but if hepaid special attention to Hobbiton and Bywater no one blamed him.And at theend he found that he still had a little of the dust left; so he went to theThree-Farthing Stone, which is as near the centre of the Shire as no matter,and cast it in the air with his blessing.The little silver nut he planted inthe Party Field where the tree had once been; and he wondered what would comeof it.All through the winter he remained as patient as he could, and tried torestrain himself from going round constantly to see if anything was happening.Spring surpassed his wildest hopes.His trees began to sprout and grow, as iftime was in a hurry and wished to make one year do for twenty.In the PartyField a beautiful young sapling leaped up: it had silver bark and long leavesand burst into golden flowers in April.It was indeed a mallorn, and it was thewonder of the neighbourhood.In after years, as it grew in grace and beauty, itwas known far and wide and people would come long journeys to see it: the onlymallorn west of the Mountains and east of the Sea, and one of the finest in theworld.Altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvellous year.Not only was therewonderful sunshine and delicious rain, in due times and perfect measure, butthere seemed something more: an air of richness and growth, and a gleam of abeauty beyond that of mortal summers that flicker and pass upon thisMiddle-earth.All the children born or begotten in that year, and there weremany, were fair to see and strong, and most of them had a rich golden hair thathad before been rare among hobbits.The fruit was so plentiful that younghobbits very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream; and later they sat on thelawns under the plum-trees and ate, until they had made piles of stones likesmall pyramids or the heaped skulls of a conqueror, and then they moved on.Andno one was ill, and everyone was pleased.except those who had to mow thegrass.In the Southfarthing the vines were laden, and the yield of ‘leaf’ wasastonishing; and everywhere there was so much corn that at Harvest every barnwas stuffed.‘The Northfarthing barley was so fine that the beer of 1420 maltwas long remembered and became a byword.Indeed a generation later one mighthear an old gaffer in an inn, after a good pint of well-earned ale, put downhis mug with a sigh: ‘Ah! that was proper fourteen-twenty, that was!’Sam stayed at first at the Cottons’ with Frodo; but when the New Row was readyhe went with the Gaffer.In addition to all his other labours he was busydirecting the cleaning up and restoring of Bag End; but he was often away inthe Shire on his forestry work.So he was not at home in early March and didnot know that Frodo had been ill.On the thirteenth of that month Farmer Cottonfound Frodo lying on his bed; he was clutching a white gem that hung on a chainabout his neck and he seemed half in a dream.‘It is gone for ever,’ he said, ‘and now all is dark and empty.’But the fit passed, and when Sam got back on the twenty-fifth, Frodo hadrecovered, and he said nothing about himself.In the meanwhile Bag End had beenset in order, and Merry and Pippin came over from Crickhollow bringing back allthe old furniture and gear, so that the old hole soon looked very much as italways had done.When all was at last ready Frodo said: ‘When are you going to move in and joinme, Sam?’Sam looked a bit awkward.‘There is no need to come yet, if you don’t want to,’ said Frodo.‘But you knowthe Gaffer is close at hand, and he will be very well looked after by WidowRumble.’It s not that, Mr.Frodo, said Sam, and he went very red
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