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The hobbit lads came over slowly with uncertain steps and Jinniver too felt a little foolish and pretended to be busy fixing an imaginary chip in her pipe at first. The lads pushed Ferrin forwards and he coughed so that she had to look up. Her face was still red, if not even more so. But the lads were kind enough not to comment on the unseen soil smudged on her nose.
“We um…we come to ask you if there’s anything you need doing like. Um, you know, anything that needs building or fixing for the garden?” Ferrin stumbled over his words and gave Jinniver a hopeful smile.
She felt relief, and out of the corner of her eye, she spied Andwise on the roof, watching. “He must have got them to make amends,” she thought to herself, which made her a little more nervous. She wasn’t sure what to say about the offer, and had to think for a moment if there was anything she needed doing. “I wouldn’t mind if you could get me some old logs and make a border,” she asked Ferrin, who looked a little confused “How do you mean, miss? You’ll have to show me what you want by that.”
Jinniver stood up and walked to the borders and the hobbit lads followed her, apart from one, who had gone to help fetch the second breakfast. The smell of freshly brewed tea and warm scones wafted all the way across from the kitchen as he opened the door, and several stomachs, large and small, rumbled all at once.
The border she had worked on that morning was now clear of weeds, but the raw edges met the grass and Jinniver could see it would benefit from being made neat and tidy, at least until the plants she was going to put in were more mature. She had an idea for an edging made from old logs cut into short pieces; each small segment would be cut in half, and then they would be laid along the border, making a scalloped edge. This would, she thought, give the flower beds a neat shape, and the plants could trail around and over the logs as time went on.
She explained her idea to Ferrin and his pals, who stuck out their bottom lips and nodded in agreement. It was not a big job at all, the only snag was where they would find some old logs.
“ I’ve found just the thing, if you can help me”, said Jinniver, moving to the back of one of the borders where a tree stump laid half-covered by earth. “It’s long dead, and the roots go down a long way. They’ll provide some useful timber for this, I’m sure.”
Ferrin shook his head “But how are we going to get that great brute out of the ground? It’s stuck fast as far as I can see. Been there a long time and it doesn’t look like it wants to go anywhere now”.
Jinniver had thought of this. “I can get my horse and harness him to the stump, and he can pull it out, he’s strong. Only thing is, I would need some help. Either to make sure the rope stays on while I’m doing it, or to guide Nutkin, to guide my horse. I can’t do both at once, you see.”
The hobbits all nodded when they saw how it could be done. “Let’s try right now! And then for some tea and cake,” said Ferrin, heading towards the paddock.
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