Journal, Ninth Entry: Experiences

Dear Mother and Father, We are at Buckland again, staying with Aunty Rose. I am happy and I am sad. I am happy to see Aunty Rose again, but I am sad because I have no friends. I saw some hobbit children playing today. They were having fun. I went to them and tried to play. They laughed at me and one boy pushed me. I didn't like that. They said I wasn't a real hobbit, but a dwarf and asked me where my beard was. I am a real hobbit! They mean Rua who takes care of me because he is a dwarf and has a big beard. I told them he isn't my father, he just looks after me. They said I didn't belong there. They pushed me again and one threw a stone. I went away then. Why don't they like me? I never hurt them. I played in the woods instead. They remind me of when Rua and I were camping and looking for ore. I found some pretty coloured stones in a stream and showed them to Aunty Rose. Rua says they are agate and we can polish them to make the colours come out. I will make Aunty Rose a necklace when we get home. She hugs me and tells me I am a special little girl. I like Aunty Rose a lot. We baked a new cake with nuts and berries in it. It was good. I like to cook. Aunty Rose says I will make someone a good wife when I grow up. I didn't know what a wife is and I said don't want to be owned by anyone! Aunty Rose laughed at me. She said when a girlhobbit and a boyhobbit like each other very very very much, they get married and live together. The girlhobbit becomes a wife and the boyhobbit becomes a husband. I don't think I will ever get married. I don't like boyhobbits. They push you and throw stones and laugh. I can't ever see me living with one! I want to go home. Your loving Zara