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.But I wish you all speed, and my house is open to you, if ever you come backthis way again."They thanked him, of course, with many bows and sweepings of theirhoods and with many an "at your service, O master of the wide wooden halls!"But their spirits sank at his grave words, and they all felt that theadventure was far more dangerous than they had thought, while all the time,even if they passed all the perils of the road, the dragon was waiting atthe end.All that morning they were busy with preparations.Soon after middaythey ate with Beorn for the last time, and after the meal they mounted thesteeds he was lending them, and bidding him many farewells they rode offthrough his gate at a good pace.As soon as they left his high hedges at the east of his fenced landsthey turned north and then bore to the north-west.By his advice they wereno longer making for the main forest-road to the south of his land.Had theyfollowed the pass, their path would have led them down the stream from themountains that joined the great river miles south of the Carrock.At thatpoint there was a deep ford which they might have passed, if they had stillhad their ponies, and beyond that a track led to the skirts of the wood andto the entrance of the old forest road.But Beorn had warned them that thatway was now often used by the goblins, while the forest-road itself, he badheard, was overgrown and disused at the eastern end and led to impassablemarshes where the paths had long been lost.Its eastern opening had alsoalways been far to the south of the Lonely Mountain, and would have leftthem still with a long and difficult northward march when they got to theother side.North of the Carrock the edge of Mirkwood drew closer to the borders ofthe Great River, and though here the Mountains too drew down nearer, Beornadvised them to take this way; for at a place a few days' ride due north ofthe Carrock was the gate of a little-known pathway through Mirkwood that ledalmost straight towards the Lonely Mountain."The goblins," Beorn had said, "will not dare to cross the Great Riverfor a hundred miles north of the Carrock nor to come near my house -- it iswell protected at night!-- but I should ride fast; for if they make theirraid soon they will cross the river to the south and scour all the edge ofthe forest so as to cut you off, and Wargs run swifter than ponies.Stillyou are safer going north, even though you seem to be going back nearer totheir strongholds; for that is what they will least expect, and they willhave the longer ride to catch you.Be off now as quick as you may!"That is why they were now riding in silence, galloping wherever theground was grassy and smooth, with the mountains dark on their left, and inthe distance the line of the river with its trees drawing ever closer.Thesun had only just turned west when they started, and till evening it laygolden on the land about them.It was difficult to think of pursuing goblinsbehind, and when they had put many miles between them and Beorn's house theybegan to talk and to sing again and to forget the dark forest-path that layin front.But in the evening when the dusk came on and the peaks of themountains glowered against the sunset they made a camp and set a guard, andmost of them slept uneasily with dreams in which there came the howl ofhunting wolves and the cries of goblins.Still the next morning dawnedbright and fair again.There was an autumn-like mist white upon the ground and the air waschill, but soon the sun rose red in the East and the mists vanished, andwhile the shadows were still long they were off again.So they rode now fortwo more days, and all the while they saw nothing save grass and flowers andbirds and scattered trees, and occasionally small herds of red deer browsingor sitting at noon in the shade.Sometimes Bilbo saw the horns of the hartssticking up out of the long grass, and at first he thought they were thedead branches of trees
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