Chapter Forty-Six: Bilbo of Bag End

At last, my dear, there’s a Bilbo living at Bag End again. My tenth child! And guess what, he was born on your birthday! This is the one year that we haven’t gone to the Havens to celebrate your day, but we celebrated both of them here. I am full to bursting with all my lads and lasses and not a day goes by without me thanking you for making it all possible.

The births are getting easier all the time and this one arrived even before the midwife did! That confirmed more than anything that he was well named - he was already anxious to start his first adventure!

He’s lovely just like all the others. It’s been fourteen years since you left and not a day goes by without me thinking of you and wishing you were here, especially on days like this, but I know you are in spirit. I know you never left. I can feel your presence everywhere and I can see you smiling over us. I can’t wait to see that smile with something other than my heart, but I know also that all the smiles I saw today in Rose and all my other bairns helps to make up for your absence.

The children all gathered around to see their latest sibling. Pippin-lad raised his little Primrose, just one, up to see her brother and Merry raised Daisy and then they all sat, now on two couches, to wait their turn to hold the babe. They were all in awe. They never get over someone so small. The eldest have seem many of them, but I think they forget and are reminded each time a new one comes. So you were right about so many coming. My heart nearly burst to watch them all gathered together. All mine! I can scarce believe it. Rose has been that wonderful. She is the most loving mother there ever was, outside of my own mum, and I think each one just makes her a little happier.

Bag End is certainly not anymore a quiet place of two scholarly bachelors! It is ever loud with the shouts and cries of children. A most lovely sound. Oh, there are arguments and fights too, but for the most part, they are each other’s best friends and a credit to hobbits everywhere. The study is not abandoned though, not at all. All the children’s studies are done there, just like Mr. Bilbo and you taught me and that is another memory I treasure as I teach them their numbers and how to read and write and remember all the times I was there. I want to open up the same worlds Mr. Bilbo and you opened for me. So like there is now a Frodo writing again at that desk, there will one day be once more a Bilbo. I wish I could show them Rivendell and Lothlorien, but with the Lord Elrond and the Lady gone, I don’t know if I would have the heart or even the permission to enter such lands. Still I smile at it all. All seems right with the world, though I wish, as I wish every day, that you were here. But you are, dear. You are.

Good night now, dear. Sleep well. Remember always how much your Sam loves you.

* * *

Oh, my Sam, I am so glad you are filling in all the corners of Bag End with such joy and cheer and so many, many children!  I so wanted the same, but I got my wish another way with all these nieces and nephews running about, exploring all the nooks and crannies and having fun hiding in the cellar and replaying all the adventures you and I had as I'm sure they are doing.  Dare I hope they have discovered books and all those adventures too?  Of course they have.  You wouldn't deprive them of that.  I am so happy for you and them!