I Witness Bilbo and Gandalf's Meeting

I was at Bilbo's house one day in the first month of spring. We were having second breakfast together. It was an ordinary and beautiful day. After our meal, we went outside on his front porch. Bilbo sat on his bench smoking his pipe while I walked out the gate to his flower bed, which was under his windowsill.

"Your flowers are blooming very well this year, Bilbo. What did you do differently than the last season?" I asked him.

"Why, thank you, Fawnabelle! I gave them more of everything. Plus, I did what you advised... I read to them," he grinned.

"What did you read to them?" I asked curiously.

"The Hobbiton Herald, of course," he said plainly. 

"Of course," I giggled. He smiled and then I looked down the road. I saw a mysterious figure coming towards Bag End. I quickly looked away, went back inside the gate, and sat down next to Bilbo. The person kept walking in our direction then he appeared to be an elderly man. He was certainly not a hobbit; he had a long gray beard, wore big black boots, and a pointy blue hat. He stopped right in front of the mail post and that was when Bilbo noticed him. The man was holding a tall staff and he stayed at the gate for a little while before Bilbo broke the silence.

"Good morning," Bilbo said. The man stared at Bilbo from under his wide-brimmed blue hat. 

"What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I like it or not? Or that you feel good on this morning, or that it is a morning to be good on?" the old man asked. I laughed under my breath and looked at Bilbo. He looked a little confused so I turned the other way. 

"All of them at once, I suppose," Bilbo finally answered. "And a fine morning for a pipe of tobacco as well. If you have a pipe on you, take it out, and have a fill of mine! We have the whole day ahead of us." Bilbo blew out a gray smoke ring and it floated in the direction of The Water.

"Very pretty! But I have no time to blow smoke rings today," Gandalf said. They talked a good deal more about adventures and Bilbo's mother and things Gandalf had done in the past. I was rather interested in Gandalf from then on. I wished I could just spend a whole day with him and have him tell me all about what he had done in the past. After I was done daydreaming, Bilbo was going inside. I stood up but I didn't go inside.