~Prologue~

It was a day early in October. Sam Gamgee was sitting in his study, reading a book on Shire Farming. The Smial was silent. Elanor, Frodo-lad and Baby Rose had been put down for a nap and Rosie had gone down to the market for cheese and carrots.

A moment later, Sam heard little footsteps in the hall, and the door cracked open to reveal a small four year old hobbit lad standing there, tears streaming down his face.

"What is it, Frodo-lad?" Sam asked, holding his arms out to the boy.

"I saw him, Da. He was huwt and he was sad," the lad said between tears. He climbed onto his Da's lap.

"Who?" Sam asked, wiping tears off his son's face.

"Uncle Fwodo," Frodo-lad said.

Sam gazed into his son's clear blue eyes for a moment. "Are you sure?"

Frodo nodded.

"What did he look like? Was anyone with him?"

"He had bwue eyes, like me, and he was with a hobbit and tawl people," Frodo said. "He looked so sad, Da!"

Sam smiled. "He'll be all right, Frodo lad," he said, hugging his lad to him.

"Are you sure, Da?"

"Yes. Lord Elrond and Bilbo and Gandalf are there with him. Do you think you could fall asleep here in my lap?" he asked.

Little Frodo rubbed his eyes and nodded.

A moment later the child was asleep, and Sam heard the door to the smial open. Rosie entered the room.

"I thought he was in bed, Sam," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"He was scared, love," Sam said. "He saw Frodo. Like it was a vision or something. Frodo-lad said he was hurt and sad and.... Have you looked at the calendar today?"

"October sixth," Rosie murmured. "What does it mean, Sam?"

"I'm not sure. But we'll just have to keep an eye on it," Sam replied, smiling down at his son. The boy, though not related to Frodo Baggins by blood, bore a strong resemblance to his namesake. His facial structure was thin and fine, and his eyes were the biggest, bluest eyes Sam had ever seen.

"Well then, bundle this lad off to bed, love. I must talk to you about having Josephine Burrows watch the children tomorrow while you and I go up to Bywater for that party."

~ One ~

It was a fine sunny afternoon in Hobbiton, and it was the day of Josephine's first job. She was going to watch Sam and Rosie Gamgee's three children; Elanor, who was six, Frodo-lad who was four, and Rose, who was just two.

Josephine was twenty seven, and had three younger siblings, George, Flora and Clarabell, she she had plenty of experience with children, even though the youngest of her siblings was now fourteen. She thought she could handle it, but this job was going to be like nothing she had ever dealth with.

* * *

Knock... knock...knock...

"Mummy, there's a pewson at the doow, what do we do?" Little Frodo asked, jumping around the room and just being downright obnoxious.

"Frodo, it's Josephine. She's coming to watch you while Da and I go out. Could you please sit still for just one moment?" Rosie asked, going to open the door.

"Ma!" Elanor said in a snobby voice. "Rose won't stop crying and Frodo won't sit still and I can't concentrate while he's running and making noise!" She had been trying to teach herself to read, and it wasn't really working with all the distractions.

"Just a moment, dear. Hello, come right in, Josephine!" Rosie said, opening the door for the hobbit girl to enter. "This is Frodo," she pointed to the boy looking up at them with wide blue eyes. "That's Elanor," she indicated the girl sitting on the back of a big arm chair with a book upside down in her hands. "And I will show you Rose in a moment, she's napping."

She led the girl into the kitchen. "Here is where the pantry is, and here are some things to make pancakes for the children for dinner, or supper. The girl's room is down that hall, and Frodo's is next to it. Rose should sleep for another hour or so."

Then after the tour of the hole, she reminded her where she and Sam would be, then proceeded to leave. They were delayed a few minutes because of the hugs and kisses from their children, but finally they were able to be on their way.

* * *

Frodo watched the girl quietly as she mixed the ingredients for the pancakes. Elanor was sitting on the counter handing Josephine the flour and eggs.

"Let me crack the eggs, Jo!" Elanor exclaimed. "Please?"

"All right," Jo said, handing Elanor an egg and the mixing bowl. "Don't get any shell in it, dear."

"I know how to do it," Elanor said, dangling her furry feet off the edge of the counter.

"When is it going to be done?" Frodo asked.

"It'll be done in just a few minutes," Jo said, smiling.

"There," Jo said moments later, placing a plate of steaming pancakes on the table with some syrup beside it.

"Wait here while I go check on Rose," she said, then left.

Elanor glanced at Frodo with a mischievous look in her grey-blue eyes. She carefully maneuvered her way off the tall countertop.

"Can you weatch that bowl?" Frodo asked quietly, eyeing the syrup questioningly.

"It's a pitcher, stupid," Elanor replied, giving her younger brother an "I'm-six-and-I-know-it-all" look.

"Whatevew, can you weatch it?" Frodo demanded.

"Of course I can," she stated, climbing on the nearest chair to reach the glass pitcher.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Jo exclaimed.

The two children looked up from the mess that was all over the floor.

"Do you like my picture?" Elanor asked, stepping aside from the syrup and pancake mess that faintly resembled a cow.

"Oh, all right, you two go wash, then do something quiet in the parlor," Josephine said, trying to find a good way to clean the mess and keep her temper.

"But what about supper?" Frodo asked.

"Never mind that," Jo said.

"But I'm hungwy!"

Jo sighed and handed the lad a dry pancake from the plate.

The lad smiled. "Oh.... and it's a wittle sticky," he added.

"Yes, I know that. Now please go and get cleaned up."

"All wight. Ellie!" Frodo flew off to find his sister.

"Ugh, I can't believe this! This mess is going to take forever to clean up!" Jo thought as she got to cleaning the sticky syrup up from the floor.

Suddenly she heard a cry from the back room.

"Not Rose, now!" she said, witholding a scream.

* * *

Jo had finally managed to get the mess in the kitchen resolved carrying Little Rose on her hip. The baby was calm enough and was facinated with Jo's unusually straight blonde-red hair. She was used to the normally curly hair most hobbits had.

Jo was just sitting down to feed the baby when she heard a crash and Ellie's voice screaming, "Frodo!"

She clutched Rose close and dashed into the parlor to see Elanor kneeling by a side table, and a beautiful hand painted Gondorian vase in pieces on the floor.

"What happened, Ellie?" Jo asked, setting Rose on the rug away from the glass pieces.

"We were playing tag..." Elanor began.

"Oh great!" Jo exclaimed, rolling her eyes and kneeling by the child.

"Just listen!" Elanor continued. "Frodo just paused in the middle of the floor for a long time, then he backed up and broke the vase on accident and now he's back there cryin'!"

"What happened to him?" Jo demanded, looking at the child, curled up with a big pillow.

"Da says he can see things as ain't there," Elanor said, her eyes getting large.

Jo rolled her eyes. Something had probably scared the boy, but it couldn't have been a vision.

"Frodo-lad, do you want to come out?"

The boy glanced over the edge of his pillow and shook his head.

Jo sighed. "Would you like to tell me what you saw?"

Again Frodo shook his head. "I want to tell Da."

"All right, you can tell Da when he comes home. But for now, howabout I tell you a story as soon as I get this mess cleaned up?" Jo asked heading for the broken pieces of vase.

"Do you want some help?" Elanor asked.

"No, you might get hurt. I want you to help your brother for me," Jo said, kindly but firmly.

Elanor looked like she was going to protest and say something about how grown up she really was, and that she wouldn't be hurt by the glass, but she decided not to after Josephine told her she was in charge of keeping her brother safe.

"What story are you going to tell?" asked Little Frodo, now subdued and sitting curled up next to Jo.

"Yes, what story will you tell us?" Elanor asked from her perch on the back of the chair.

The two children were pleased that Jo was willing to tell them a story after their prank earlier. They were also glad that Ho wouldn't have to be interrupted by Rose, because she was sleeping peacefully again.

"Well," Jo thought a moment. "How about..."

"Jo!" Frodo said, looking up. "I'm hungwy!"

"You're always hungry," Elanor complained.

"Well, it's about time for supper, so how about we eat and then I tell you a story?"

Both children nodded.

"Do you want to help?"

Again they nodded, but this time more eagerly.

* * *

"Now can you tell us a story?" Little Frodo asked, licking his chubby fingers clean of the jam from his rather large sandwich.

"Yes, let's go into the parlor, and I will tell you a story my Da used to tell me and my siblings."

The two small hobbits scurried after Jo.

"Once upon a time..." she began.

~Two~

“Oh, look Sam,” said Rosie coming through the front door of Bag End.

Josephine slowly slipped out from underneath little Frodo’s head.

“The darlings are asleep,” Rosie ended with a smile. Her children slept peacefully on as Sam, Rosie and Josephine walked into the kitchen.

“How were the children?” Rosie asked.

“They were rather good, but there are a few things you should know…”

Sam and Rosie waited for her to continue.

“They made a bit of a mess in the kitchen and I cleaned it up just fine, but while I was cleaning the mess up Frodo and Elanor were playing tag, and Elanor says that Frodo saw something… I don’t know what that means. Anyway, Frodo-lad was seemingly pretty frightened and ran to hide, but in doing so he accidentally broke your lovely vase. I’m really sorry. I saved the pieces in the study in case you wanted to repair it.”

“Thank you for telling us. I know the children can be a bit of a handful and we don’t blame you for any of it,” Sam said, smiling gently at the girl.

Rosie nodded. “We can see that they like you, and Rose seems to have taken to you.”

Jo looked down at the baby hobbit in her arms, she was afraid that if she set the child down she’d wake up.

“We would love to have you again,” Sam finished for his wife, who had taken Baby Rose from Jo and went to put the three in bed.

“Any time you need me I’d be happy to help,” Jo said with a smile.

* * *

Sam entered Frodo-lad’s room shortly after Josephine left and found the child sitting up in bed, gazing across the room at nothing in particular.

“Are you all right, lad?” Sam asked.

Frodo nodded. “I’m all wight now, Da. Is Uncle Fwodo all wight?”

“I believe so,” Sam said, his stomach learching suddenly, wondering exactly what his son had seen.

“He didn’t look happy.” Tears welled in the boy’s eyes. He never liked it when hobbits weren’t happy. He knew somehow it wasn’t right. Sam pulled his son into his arms.

“What happened?”

“He was cwying. He said he huwt. I don’t want him to be sad, Da. Will he be all wight?”

Sam tightened his grip on his son, as much to comfort the lad as to stop himself from shaking. It took a moment for him to steady his voice to speak, “Yes, lad. He’s fine. He has many friends to help him be happy again.” He sent a prayer up to Iluvitar that what he said was true. “Eru protect him,” he whispered. He now had no doubt that his son had seen true.

“I’m gwad, Da,” Frodo said, nestling his head into Sam’s shirt. After a moment when Sam thought the lad was asleep, he heard his tiny voice say, “Da, how come I can see Uncle Fwodo and you can’t?”

Sam didn’t have an answer for that. “I don’t know, love. Does it scare you?”

Frodo shook his head emphatically, then nodded. “A little,” he said. “It did today.” Suddenly his blue eyes got very big. “I bwoke Mum’s vase,” he said. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s all right, love. Now,” Sam said, kissing his son’s forehead. “You need to get to bed.”

“Yes, Da. I’m sleepy.”

Sam rocked the child and sang to him an elvish lullaby he used to sing to Frodo, and his thoughts drifted to Valinor. He heard Frodo-lad’s breathing even out and prayed to Iluvitar to watch over the child as he slept. Then Sam rose and left the room.

~Three~

Josephine made sure to tie up her hair before she left home the next week when Sam and Rosie needed her again. Perhaps today the children would mind her better since they had gotten to know her, but still she was prepared for almost anything. Almost. In all her preparing, she had failed to prepare for what Elanor and little Frodo had planned.

* * *

She stood in the middle of the living room, Rose in her arms, looking down at the giant pile of pillows thrown on the floor. She rolled her eyes. She’d have to pick it up later, when they’d gone to bed. She couldn’t pick it up with Rosie squirming in her arms.

She glanced around for the culprits, but they were no where to be seen. “Elanor! Frodo! Would you come clean up this mess?” she called, knowing that it was in vain. They wouldn’t clean it up. They were probably hidden somewhere giggling at her.

Suddenly she gasped. If they were hiding she might not be able to find them and they might get hurt.

She knew how well hobbit children could go unseen and unheard. She had many times hidden from her siblings in a similar manner. She sighed. She couldn’t do anything until she put Rosie down for her nap.

Rosie yawned, so Josephine carried her to the master bedroom where Rose’s cradle was, and put her to bed. Within moments the baby was sleeping peacefully and Jo headed back to the kitchen.

She started searching the house for them, but she couldn’t find any trace of them anywhere in the house, other than the jam fingerprints left over from luncheon.

“Where would I hide if I were them?” she thought to herself.

After moments of frantic searching, she suddenly knew. “The garden shed!”

She remembered when she was small and wanted to be alone, she had gone into her Da’s old shed. No one had found her for hours. It was the perfect place.

She ran from the house and out behind the hole. As she came upon the shed, she could hear little giggles coming from within.

She heard Ellie’s voice say, “Shh! Fro, I heard footsteps.”

“Sowy Ellie,” little Frodo responded.

“SHH!”

Jo stopped for a moment letting her heart rate slow down, then she flung open the dorr to the shed and found the two greedy hobbit children sitting on the floor with a sack of mushrooms and a jar of jam pilfered from the kitchen pantry.

“Aww, she found us!” Ellie exclaimed.

“Yes I found you,” Jo said. “What were you thinking, Elanor? What if you two got hurt and I couldn’t find you?” she exclaimed.

Frodo-lad dropped his mushrooms and ran to throw his chubby arms around Jo’s legs.

“I’m sowy, Jo,” he said. “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

Ellie came up and stood behind her brother. “I’m sorry too, Jo,” she said, looking at her feet.

Jo gathered them up in a big hug. “I forgive you. But you’re going to be in time-out for running away from me, hear?”

The two children nodded, accepting their fate and following Jo inside.