BOOTS, BABIES AND BOBS
As Aragorn retied his tobacco pouch, Pippin noticed Gimli frowning. Ever curious, he leaned in to whisper, "What's the matter? If you've run out, you can have some of mine."
"No, Master Hobbit. I was just wondering about that pouch."
"What about it? It's a bit small, I grant you. But I like that little white tree embroidered on the side."
"The ankle," Gimli corrected.
Pippin watched as Aragorn slipped the the little blue pouch back into his jacket. "I don't understand."
"That is a baby bootie, unless I'm very much mistaken."
"Big folk babies wear boots? Whatever for?"
"To keep their wee feet warm, of course."
Pippin frowned, looking down at his own luxuriantly curling foot hair. "But doesn't their foot hair do that?"
Gimli snorted a laugh. "Foot hair? Men don't have foot hair, laddie." Then, with a tilt of his head, he added, "Although I've met a few with hairy toes."
Eyes widening, Pippin considered Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir's boots with new insight.
At that moment, Legolas alighted from a nearby tree, light shoes ensuring he arrived with barely a whisper of sound. Pippin was every inch a Took, so he just had to ask. "Legolas, do elf babies wear shoes?"
END