~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.