Frodo and Bilbo stared in astonishment at the sketch. Frodo placed a finger on Sam's picture. "Ban?"

Adamanta nodded. "You can see it around the eyes and the chin--and the ears."

Frodo grinned, chuckled, and laughed aloud. "Won't Sam be astonished to discover he's a Took as well! I think he always had a certain pride in the thought that he came of solid Harfoot stock--as I once heard the Gaffer say 'without a drop o' fancy or moonlight in the blood'."

Bilbo was also laughing. "Although it seems natural to me--Sam was always full of curiosity and questions."

Gandalf took a puff on his pipe. "I can probably explain that. As you know, I studied hobbit history, and though I never traced hobbits all the way back to Tûk and Adamanta," here he gave a polite nod to their hostess, "I do know that one family of Harfoots was descended from a Fallohide who left his own clan and never returned. They were among the earliest to migrate West, and it was several generations before they had contact with those whom they had left behind. I suspect that Fallohide was one of Ban's own
descendants--there was no fresh infusion of Fallohide blood among them as there was in those who remained in the East."

Adamanta nodded. "I can understand that. I had many grandchildren and great-grand-children by the time I left. Some moved away and married into other clans, seldom visiting. If their new clan moved far away, it would have been difficult--perhaps close to impossible--to keep in touch."

Frodo chuckled again. "I do so look forward to the look on Sam's face when he meets you, Adamanta! He'll probably be even more astonished to learn your identity than Bilbo and I were!"