Read Online The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: J. R. R. Tolkien
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the mountains at night, when storms come up from East and West and make war.
The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every
cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.
Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind. They were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim
valley at one side of them. There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and
shook from head to toe. When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out,
and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed
among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang. Then came a wind and a rain, and the wind whipped the
rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock was no protection at all. Soon they were getting drenched
and their ponies were standing with their heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with
fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.
“This won’t do at all!” said Thorin. “If we don’t get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up
by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football.”
The Mountain-path
“Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!” said Gandalf, who was feeling very grumpy, and was far from happy about
the giants himself.
The end of their argument was that they sent Fili and Kili to look for a better shelter. They had very sharp eyes, and being
the youngest of the dwarves by some fifty years they usually got these sort of jobs (when everybody could see that it was
absolutely no use sending Bilbo). There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something (or so Thorin said to the young
dwarves). You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. So it
proved on this occasion.
Soon Fili and Kili came crawling back, holding on to the rocks in the wind. “We have found a dry cave,” they said, “not far
round the next corner; and ponies and all could get inside.”
“Have you
thoroughly
explored it?” said the wizard, who knew that caves up in the mountains were seldom unoccupied.
“Yes, yes!” they said, though everybody knew they could not have been long about it; they had come back too quick. “It isn’t
all that big, and it does not go far back.”
That, of course, is the dangerous part about caves: you don’t know how far they go back, sometimes, or where a passage behind
may lead to, or what is waiting for you inside. But now Fili and Kili’s news seemed good enough. So they all got up and prepared
to move. The wind was howling and the thunder still growling, and they had a business getting themselves and their ponies
along. Still it was not very far to go, and before long they came to a big rock standing out into the path. If you stepped behind, you found a low arch in the side of the mountain. There was just room
to get the ponies through with a squeeze, when they had been unpacked and unsaddled. As they passed under the arch, it was
good to hear the wind and the rain outside instead of all about them, and to feel safe from the giants and their rocks. But
the wizard was taking no risks. He lit up his wand—as he did that day in Bilbo’s dining-room that seemed so long ago, if you
remember—, and by its light they explored the cave from end to end.
It seemed quite a fair size, but not too large and mysterious. It had a dry floor and some comfortable nooks. At one end there
was room for the ponies; and there they stood (mighty glad of the change) steaming, and champing in their nosebags. Oin and
Gloin wanted to light a fire
The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every
cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.
Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind. They were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim
valley at one side of them. There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and
shook from head to toe. When he peeped out in the lightning-flashes, he saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out,
and were hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed
among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang. Then came a wind and a rain, and the wind whipped the
rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock was no protection at all. Soon they were getting drenched
and their ponies were standing with their heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with
fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.
“This won’t do at all!” said Thorin. “If we don’t get blown off, or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up
by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football.”
The Mountain-path
“Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!” said Gandalf, who was feeling very grumpy, and was far from happy about
the giants himself.
The end of their argument was that they sent Fili and Kili to look for a better shelter. They had very sharp eyes, and being
the youngest of the dwarves by some fifty years they usually got these sort of jobs (when everybody could see that it was
absolutely no use sending Bilbo). There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something (or so Thorin said to the young
dwarves). You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. So it
proved on this occasion.
Soon Fili and Kili came crawling back, holding on to the rocks in the wind. “We have found a dry cave,” they said, “not far
round the next corner; and ponies and all could get inside.”
“Have you
thoroughly
explored it?” said the wizard, who knew that caves up in the mountains were seldom unoccupied.
“Yes, yes!” they said, though everybody knew they could not have been long about it; they had come back too quick. “It isn’t
all that big, and it does not go far back.”
That, of course, is the dangerous part about caves: you don’t know how far they go back, sometimes, or where a passage behind
may lead to, or what is waiting for you inside. But now Fili and Kili’s news seemed good enough. So they all got up and prepared
to move. The wind was howling and the thunder still growling, and they had a business getting themselves and their ponies
along. Still it was not very far to go, and before long they came to a big rock standing out into the path. If you stepped behind, you found a low arch in the side of the mountain. There was just room
to get the ponies through with a squeeze, when they had been unpacked and unsaddled. As they passed under the arch, it was
good to hear the wind and the rain outside instead of all about them, and to feel safe from the giants and their rocks. But
the wizard was taking no risks. He lit up his wand—as he did that day in Bilbo’s dining-room that seemed so long ago, if you
remember—, and by its light they explored the cave from end to end.
It seemed quite a fair size, but not too large and mysterious. It had a dry floor and some comfortable nooks. At one end there
was room for the ponies; and there they stood (mighty glad of the change) steaming, and champing in their nosebags. Oin and
Gloin wanted to light a fire
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