While They were Away

After that hard winter, it was a pleasure to start preparing the fields for planting and to see the new lambs frolicking in the newly greening fields. The inn was bustling with customers every night, and every night Rosie came home with News of the doings in the rest of the Shire and sometimes with News from the world outside the Shire. There was News of a battle at the Hornburg in Rhohan, but as we Hobbits really didn't have any idea of its location, it caused very little stir here in the middle of the Shire. The season moved on into the beginnings of summer, and the crops were growing nicely when a rumor came to the Green Dragon that did upset the locals.
 Lotho Sackville-Baggins had bought the mill of Ted Sandyman. He brought in wagonloads of men to tear it down and to build a larger mill full of lots of gears and wheels. No one but Ted loved it as it spewed so much smoke into the air that the crops nearest the new mill began to show signs of distress. Ted loved it because he got to work there and polish the gears and wheels. What good was it if there was no grist to mill at the end of the season?  Lotho brought in many others to work in his mills that he was building all over the Shire. They have built warehouses and sheds at Longbottom. A mill at Sarn Ford and of course, those ugly houses to home the workers and the ruffians. These others were both men and a creature I have never seen. I called the smaller scrawny ones ratmen. They are all cruel and brook no interference in their appointed tasks.
 Soon it was brought to our attention that anyone defying The Chief, as Lotho called himself, was being jailed in the Lock-holes at Michel Delving. They were old storage tunnels where hobbits of the Shire had stored monmaths, things that you didn't need now but might need in the future.
 The roads were soon clogged with large wagons driven by men. The Chief started purchasing vast amounts of goods to be delivered to Bag End. Large sections of the forest around Bag End were cut down. This was milled into lumber at Sandyman's mill.  The lumber was used to build sheds to store the goods and ugly narrow houses to house his workers,  replaceing Bagshot Row. Those residents that were displaced were all housed in one of the new houses. I discovered that the Gaffer was one of the residents and managed to visit him a few times before that was forbidden by the Chief.
 As the Chief began to have more control over the town and the entire Shire, the mayor, Will Whitfoot, called a meeting of all residents. As he tried to rally the group to stand up to Lotho and defend their rights as free Hobbits, Lotho sent his large men and several Sherriffs to arrest him. That was the fate of anyone that defied the orders of the Chief. Old Flourdumpling was also one of the first to stand up and be drug to the Lock-holes. Every day it seems that someone disappears. Then as more and more men and ratmen, as I call them, began to pour into the Shire, the Chief started implementing security measures all over the Shire. The first was a curfew and closing down of all the inns except the one that his men used. Beer and pipeweed were only for the Chief's men; not even the
Sherriffs were allowed to have the pleasures of the pipeweed and a cooling sip of Beer. Everyone who was a Sherriff was conscripted into the new corps of enforcers of the Chief's rules. Those that tried to quit the Sherriff corps were promptly thrown in the Lock-holes, and their families were either jailed too or cut to half rations.
 I forgot to tell you that as the harvest got underway, the Chief had it all delivered to large warehouses near Bag End. At first, the produce was paid for by Lotho, but as the number of goods confiscated grew, he stopped paying for it. The same was true of damages to property by his men, but that stopped too. We were told there would be for equal distribution to all residents, but soon,  large wagons were leaving the
The Shire loaded with goods for the south. Soon there was no pipeweed to be had, and the only food available was what a farmer had stored before the crops were confiscated or the meager rations from the Chief.
 After all the wagons left, two large spiked gates were put in place on the Brandywine Bridge. According to the Chief, all protests were met with swift justice, so most hobbits kept a low profile and waited for what we did not know.
 I guess the one bright spot in this mess was the Took Family of Green Hills and Great Smails. When the Chief tried to force his rules on them, they put up a battle that led to the death of three of his men. The Tooks set up patrols and hunted down any of the Chief's men that came into the area of the Tooklands. The Chief gave up on forcing their cooperation but kept such a close eye on Tookland that not even word of how the family is doing escapes to the remainder of the Shire.
 More men were coming all the time, and houses were built near the Bridge. There no rest at night with all the clatter and noise from the mills and the men carousing.
 Close to the end of Harvest, September, I think, a new man arrived in the night. We never saw him, but things took a distinct turn for the worst. Trees were pulled down but left to rot, fields were dug up, and the topsoil carried away to who knows were. With him came some giant dark beings that resembled men but were twisted and mean.
 The ruffians call him Sharkey. He is housed up in Bag End, and he had Lobelia put in the Lock-holes after she attacked some of the ruffians with her umbrella.
 I heard it was because Sharkey had ordered the rest of the garden at Bag End dug up and the Party tree pulled down so that more sheds could be built. He also ordered houses burned and nothing built to replace them so more and more families were being crowded into the houses up by the Bywater. My Da reached out to the Gaffer, who  was still living in one of the houses up there. Telling him, he was welcome to come to stay with us, but he never did. He does come around once in a while when he gets a chance, and we feed him up. So he's doing better than some of those up there. At first, we asked him to take some extra food to share as he could, but he refused, citing that there were spies among them that live there too.
 That is the sad part of this; we no longer know who we can trust. Hobbits never lied to each other. We never fought with each other. We were content and settled our disagreements with discussion and independent opinion. Now we are even suspicious of our own. Hob Haywood, one of Sam's and my best friends, is now a Sherriff at the Brandywine bridge,I would love to be able to ask him many questions about the direction and amounts of our goods that leave the Shire, but can I trust that he will not have me thrown into the Lock-holes.
 Robin Smallburrows is another friend I would love to be able to see and question. He is in the First Eastfarthing Troop now, and I hear that they are recruiting new Sherriffs every day. I would not like to come under their gaze. Da needs me here on the farm.
 I often think of Sam and Frodo; what are they doing now? Are they still alive? We have heard nothing of them since the attack on the inn at Bree.
 Ever since the Brandywine gate has been closed, we receive nothing from the rest of Middle Earth, no goods, not that we traded a lot with the men, but we did some. The hardest is no news. At least, when the Bridge was open, we got both News and rumors from folk that had relatives in Bree. Now even they can't visit without special permission from the Chief. Ever since that Sharkey came, it has been worse. Why would he want to be called that? Whatever is a shark anyway?
 Where did those huge mean ugly men come from? I think the ratmen are twisted elves. What is that evil that such fair creatures can become so angry and mean? As I have seen, it is greed that can make a person do awful things, like Lotho and his need to own and control everything. Did this happen to those elves, to those man things that are Lotho's enforcers? I fear that in the end, even he will not be able to control them, much to the dismay of all us Hobbits. One evening as I sat on the stoop, I thought I heard the tinkling of bells like the elves use on their horses. I think it was in my imagination because the noise of the mills and factories, as the men call them, was overpowering. Then a few days later, as Da and I took more of our produce to the drop-off point for pick up by the men, I spoke to another farmer. He is from the northwest of the Shire near the road to Grey Havens. Grey Havens is rumored to be the place where the Elves first came to Middle Earth centuries ago. He told me that ever since MidSummer, there had been fairy lights seen and mournful song heard from the direction of the road to the Havens every night. He said that many in his area are so afraid that they will no longer go out of their homes even to the market. This was enforced by an incident that happened a few days ago. The group was large, judging from the lights seem and they must have been escorting an important personage Something went amiss, and the escort scattered all over the area looking for them. That would have been the night I heard the bells. I'm surprised that the Chief's men did not accost them as our farmstead is quite far from the road to Grey Havens, but the ways of Elves are not the ways of men, and they can pass unseen if they wish. I wonder why we Hobbits have lost that ability. I remember tales of Hobbits avoiding the clumsy footed men sometimes persuaded my ancestors. I fear that the world is losing so much. What does it mean that the Elves are leaving? Is the world coming to an end? I wish I had paid more attention to the stories of Mr. Bilbo.