1. A Long Expected Party

At the end of the

second week in September a cart came in through Bywater from the direction

of the Brandywine Bridge in broad daylight. An old man was driving it all

alone. He wore a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, and a silver

scarf. He had a long white beard and bushy eyebrows that stuck out beyond

the brim of his hat. Small hobbit-children ran after the cart all through

Hobbiton and right up the hill. It had a cargo of fireworks, as they rightly

guessed. At Bilbo's front door the old man began to unload: there were great

bundles of fireworks of all sorts and shapes, each labelled with a large red

G and an elven rune. That was Gandalf s mark, of course, and the old man was Gandalf the

Wizard, whose fame in the Shire was due mainly to his skill with fires,

smokes, and lights. His real business was far more difficult and dangerous,

but the Shire-folk knew nothing about it.

 

-JRR Tolkien

Done