The first time I saw Sam, was at the Bywater Pool.
The spring Sun high, and the honeybees buzzing in my pointed ears.
My sister and I spied the hobbit boys dip into the pool of clear blue waters with only their skin for clothes.
I could pick out Sam's laugh from the group.
Hear the boys calling out his name to do a trick or that.
He was very good at landing into the pool from a vine hung in a tree.
I watched the way he would sometimes swim off by himself.
We were children by hobbit standards, not meant to watch each other like that, but even then I knew it.
I told my little sister Tansy Cotton.
"That's going to be my husband one day."
"Sure it is Rosie," Tansy blew the gold curl on her face, and it landed right back on her button nose.
We giggled.
The naked hobbit boys looked our way, and we rolled on our backs before they could see us.
We covered our giggling mouths, staying as quiet as we could in the grassy hillside.