The horses were standing by him with their noses at his shoulder.

“Ugh! here they are! ” he said to the horses. “They don't look dangerous. You can be off! ” He laughed a great rolling laugh, put down his axe and came forward.

“Who are you and what do you want? ” he asked gruffly, standing in front of them and towering tall above Gandalf.

As for Bilbo he could easily have trotted through his legs without ducking his head to miss the fringe of the man's brown tunic.

“I am Gandalf, ” said the wizard.

“Never heard of him, ” growled the man, “And what's this little fellow? ” he said, stooping down to frown at the hobbit with his bushy eyebrows.

“That is Mr. Baggins, a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation, ” said Gandalf. Bilbo bowed. He had no hat to take off, and was painfully conscious of his many missing buttons. “I am a wizard, ” continued Gandalf. “I have heard of you, if you have not heard of me; but perhaps you have heard of my good cousin Radagast who lives near the Southern borders of Mirkwood? ”

“Yes; not a bad fellow as wizards go, I believe. I used to see him now and again, ” said Beorn. “Well, now I know who you are, or who you say you are. What do you want? ”

“To tell you the truth, we have lost our luggage and nearly lost our way, and are rather in need of help, or at least advice. I may say we have had rather a bad time with goblins in the mountains.”

“Goblins? ” said the big man less gruffly. “O ho, so you've been having trouble with them have you? What did you go near them for? ”

“We did not mean to. They surprised us at night in a pass which we had to cross, we were coming out of the Lands over West into these countries-it is a long tale.”

“Then you had better come inside and tell me some of it, if it won't take all day, ” said the man leading the way through a dark door that opened out of the courtyard into the house.

Following him they found themselves in a wide hall with a fire-place in the middle. Though it was summer there was a wood-fire burning and the smoke was rising to the blackened rafters in search of the way out through an opening in the roof. They passed through this dim hall, lit only by the fire and the hole above it, and came through another smaller door into a sort of veranda propped on wooden posts made of single tree-trunks. It faced south and was still warm and filled with the light of the westering sun which slanted into it, and fell golden on the garden full of flowers that came right up to the steps.

Here they sat on wooden benches while Gandalf began his tale, and Bilbo swung his dangling legs and looked at the flowers in the garden, wondering what their names could be, as he had never seen half of them before.

“I was coming over the mountains with a friend or two…” said the wizard.

“Or two? I can only see one, and a little one at that, ” said Beorn.

“Well to tell you the truth, I did not like to bother you with a lot of us, until I found out if you were busy. I will give a call, if I may.”

“Go on, call away! ”