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- Everyone in the room was now looking at him. ‘A song!’ shouted one of the hobbits. ‘A song! A song!’ shouted all the others. ‘Come on now, master, sing us something that we haven’t heard before!’
- For a moment Frodo stood gaping. Then in desperation he began a ridiculous song that Bilbo had been rather fond of (and indeed rather proud of, for he had made up the words himself). It was about an inn; and that is probably why it came into Frodo’s mind just then. Here it is in full. Only a few words of it are now, as a rule, remembered.
- There is an inn, a merry old inn beneath an old grey hill,
- And there they brew a beer so brown That the Man in the Moon himself came down one night to drink his fill.
- The ostler has a tipsy cat
- that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
- And np and down he runs his bow,
- Now squeaking high, now purring low, now sawing in the middle.
- The landlord keeps a little dog that is mighty fond of jokes;
- When there’s good cheer among the guests,
- He cocks an ear at all the jests and laughs until he chokes.
- They also keep a horned cow as proud as any queen;
- But music turns her head like ale,
- And makes her wave her tufted tail and dance upon the green.
- And O! the rows of silver dishes and the store of silver spoons!
- For Sunday* there’s a special pair,
- And these they polish up with care on Saturday afternoons.
- The Man in the Moon was drinking deep, and the cat began to wail;
- A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
- The cow in the garden madly pranced, and the little dog chased his tail.
- The Man in the Moon took another mug, and then rolled beneath his chair;
- And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
- Till in the sky the stars were pale, and dawn was in the air.
- Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
- ‘ The white horses of the Moon,
- They neigh and champ their silver bits;
- But their master’s been and drowned his wits, and the Sun’ll be rising soon!’
- So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle, a jig that would wake the dead:
- He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune, While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
- ‘ It’s after three!’ he said.
- They rolled the Man slowly up the hill and bundled him into the Moon,
- While his horses galloped up in rear,
- And the cow came capering like a deer, and a dish ran up with the spoon.
- Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle; the dog began to roar,
- The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
- The guests all bounded from their beds and danced upon the floor.
- With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke! the cow jumped over the Moon,
- And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
- And the Saturday dish went off at a run with the silver Sunday spoon.
- The round Moon rolled behind the hill as the Sun raised up her head.
- She* hardly believed her fiery eyes;
- For though it was day, to her surprise they all went back to bed!
- There was loud and long applause. Frodo had a good voice, and the song tickled their fancy.
- Book 1, Chapter 9 At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
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