3. Very Old Friends

[Outside Bag End, Gandalf stops his cart.]
Gandalf: "Whoa, whoa."

[He gets down and goes through the gate which bears a sign saying: 'No admittance except on party business.']

[Gandalf knocks on the door with his staff.]
Bilbo: "No thank you! We don't want any more visitors, well-wishers or distant relations!"
Gandalf: "And what about very old friends?"

[Bilbo opens the door.]
Bilbo (amazed): "Gandalf?"

Gandalf: "Bilbo Baggins!"
Bilbo: "My dear Gandalf!" [gives Gandalf a hug]

Gandalf: "Good to see you! One hundred and eleven years old — who would believe it? You haven't aged a day."

[Bilbo and Gandalf laugh as Bilbo bids Gandalf inside.]

Bilbo: "I want to see mountains again, mountains Gandalf! And then find somewhere quiet where I can finish my book. Oh, tea!" (He hurries to prepare the tea.)
Gandalf: "So, you mean to go through with your plan, then."
Bilbo: "Yes, yes. It's all in hand. All the arrangements are made."
[Gandalf lifts up the lid of a tea pot, Bilbo starts to pour water into it.]

Bilbo: "Oh, thank you."
Gandalf: "Frodo suspects something."
Bilbo: "'Course he does. He's a Baggins! Not some block-headed Bracegirdle from Hardbottle."

Gandalf: "You will tell him, won't you?"
Bilbo: "Yes, yes."
Gandalf: "He's very fond of you."

Bilbo: "I know. He'd probably come with me if I asked him." (chuckles) "I think, in his heart, Frodo's still in love with the Shire: the woods, the fields… little rivers."

Bilbo: "I'm old, Gandalf. I know I don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart."
[Gandalf's gaze is drawn downwards to Bilbo's waistcoat pocket as the Hobbit's fingers begins to fidget with something inside it.]

[Gandalf frowns.]
Bilbo: "I feel thin — sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."
[Bilbo sits down wearily at the table.]
Bilbo: "I need a holiday — a very long holiday — and I don't expect I shall return. In fact, I mean not to!"



[Evening falls on Hobbiton. Bilbo and Gandalf sit peacefully smoking pipe outside Bag End. Below them, in the party field, sounds of laughter and revelry float up from a growing crowd of Hobbits preparing for their evening's entertainment. Torches and candles light a festive scene and everywhere food is rapidly filling up the space on wooden trestles.]

Bilbo: "Old Toby. The finest weed in the Southfarthing."

[Bilbo blows a large ring of smoke which hangs gently in the still air. Gandalf sucks his cheeks in and out, blows a majestic, full-rigged ship that he blows through the ring.]


Bilbo: "Ahh! Gandalf, my old friend. This will be a night to remember!"