"A very good tale!" said he. "The best I have heard for a good while. If all beggars could tell such a good one, they might find me kinder. You may be making it all up, of course, but you deserve a supper for the story all the same. Let's have something to eat!"
- The Hobbit, chapter VII: Queer Lodgings
They entered what appeared to be the central hall, the one with the fireplace.
The bear named Beorn clapped his hands and in trotted four ponies and several large dogs. He said something to them in a queer language like animal noises turned into talk.
The animals went out again and soon returned with torches in their mouths for the brackets on the wall. More dogs quickly got out boards and trestles form the side walls and set them near the fire. Then, in came a ram and several sheep bearing cloth for the table and bowls and platters for food and drink.
Soon they were all seated at Beorn's table. Beorn sat in his large black chair by the door and the Company sat on wide, low seated benches and polished logs at a table comfortably low enough even for a hobbit. Yet, there was one extra, one extra log stool placed to Beorn's left. Who ever was it for?
Beorn once more clapped his hands and spoke in that strange tongue to one of the dogs in the hall. Then he bade them eat supper and so they did.
After five minutes, the dog returned and following him in a way that reminded Bilbo of a lost puppy, was a slip of a girl, no more than a foot taller than Thorin himself, with messy hair, and the lean, weary look of one who did not quite expect to find a table full of food upon which to feast, much less a hobbit, a wizard, and 13 dwarrows for company.
To Bilbo, and perhaps a few others, a very few, she seemed vaguely familiar.