7. Gifts

“What about the others?” Robin asks, resting the journal back in its parcel. 

I begin listing the gifts I’d left his siblings. 

Frodo will get Bag End and its properties; I know he’ll divide the numerous properties up among his siblings as will suit each of them best. Rose gets my receipt box, full of all my favorite receipts from the Shire and Outside. Merry gets Sting, for he’d always loved it most, and to Pippin I left my walking stick and Elven cloak and brooch. For Goldilocks, I’d left Lady Galadriel’s box. The Elven rune, the letter G, had once stood for Galadriel, then garden, Gamgee and Gardner. Now it’ll stand for Goldilocks, and she can keep her trinkets in there. 

Hamfast and Bilbo, being the green thumbs after Frodo, will get my favorite gardening tools, along with seeds of elanor and niphredil. Daisy gets the healing stones Gimli had given Mr. Frodo and me in Minas Tirith, and Primrose will have the little storybook Mr. Frodo gave me his first Yule in Bag End, complete with all its illustrations. For Ruby, I’d framed the family tree she’d scribbled on long ago, adding her imaginary little sister Lily to the Gamgee clan, and Tom, my traveler, will receive the Star of the Dúnedain. 

“What about Elanor?” 

“She’ll get the Red Book, now it’s finished.”

“Will you keep one, over there?” Robin asks, motioning towards the journals.

“Nay, lad. I’ve naught left to say.”

“I think you do, Dad. How else are the Elves to know who the Ringbearers are, what with you leaving all this here? You’ll need to ask for parchment when you get there, so you can write it all down for them.”

I chuckle and pat his hand. “I’ll have to do that then,” I promise.

GF 8/7/12

To be continued...