A/N: This one is movie-verse, and assumes Rose is about the same age as Frodo and his friends.
oOoOo
Working at the Dragon wasn't exactly proper employment for a hobbit-lass, but Rose liked it well enough. She certainly overheard the most interesting news as she refilled mugs and polished the plates.
The taproom was loud, and Rose so busy, that she heard only snippets of the talk between old Mr. Tunnelly and the Sandheaver lad.
"-gone all the way to Buckland-"
"Ach!- he does that often enough, does Mr. Bilbo."
"-bringing Mr. Frodo back-"
"-to stay, I heard!"
"parents drowned-"
"-poor lad-"
Finally she understood what they were talking of. So Mr. Bilbo Baggins was planning to adopt his cousin and bring him to live at Bag End!
"Just fancy that!" she said to her mother later that evening, after she was safe at home. "There's not a hobbit luckier than Mr. Frodo, if he's going to live up on the Hill, in that fine hole. They say Mr. Bilbo brought back enough gold from his travels to fill entire tunnels!"
Mrs. Cotton took a rather different view of the matter. "You know better than to listen to that old gossiping Tunnelly, my girl," she scolded gently as she washed the supper dishes. "It's none of your business what Mr. Bilbo brought back from his travels, and even if all of Bag End is stuffed full of gold and jewels, I'll not envy Mr. Bilbo nor Mr. Frodo."
"Well, not envy them, perhaps," she conceded, toweling off another plate and placing it atop the stack on the shelf. "But it'd be nice to have riches, don't you think? Then you could hire a hobbit to clean the plates."
"Riches, aye, that'd be nice. But not all the gold in the world is worth what they've had to do to get it. Think of Mr. Bilbo, traipsing all over the mountains, fighting dragons and orcs and I don't know what all, and coming home only to find his nearest relations trying to take his house for their own.
"And as for Mr. Frodo," Mrs. Cotton added, "you think all that gold can make up for losing his mother and father, and being stranded among the Brandybucks for so many years? I don't. Let them have their riches, and much luck may it bring them. I think it far better that they'll have each other; I know I'd rather have my family than any chest full of gold."
Rosie thought about it. "I suppose you're right." She rested her head on her mother's shoulder for a moment in lieu of a hug, then went back to drying the dishes and putting them away.