They refrained from laughter until after Sam had shown Noddy out the door and he was safely away from the house. Then all their suppressed amusement burst forth at once.
Sam was still chuckling as he repeated the story to Merry at dinner-time.
"If it wasn't Noddy, I'd've said he was making it all up to have a game with us," Sam finished as he set the kitchen table. "But Noddy's too simple to think up such a fanciful tale on his own."
"Don't you believe in magic, Sam?" Merry asked him, smiling.
"'Course I do! I've seen enough of it, for good and bad. But this is just foolishness. Magic beans!" he snorted derisively. "Whoever heard of such nonsense? It's like some old fairy-story you'd tell little children."
"Then how do you account for the odd things your friend Noddy described?"
"I can't," Sam admitted, "but it doesn't sound like any magic I've heard tell of. It's too silly for Elves and such-like, if you see what I mean. And if it's something- well- worse, then it's not bad enough. If there was some evil at work on that farm, wouldn't it blight the crops, or have Noddy's cows and pigs turn up dead rather than where they shouldn't be? Wouldn't it kill poor Noddy instead of trying to scare him?" He turned in appeal to Frodo, who sat smoking before the sitting-room fire; having spent his amusement at Noddy's predicament, Frodo had settled down to think.
"I agree with Sam about that," Frodo said to Merry. "The whole business sounds like some elaborate prank that's being pulled on Noddy. I'm sure that the little Man is behind it all somehow. There's one point in particular that interests me: according to Noddy, his little visitor said that the farm was cursed because it was not in the hands of its rightful owner."
"These old spirits of the wood," Merry said with a note of sarcasm. "I find it hard to believe in them myself. And if these spirits are in the woods at Green Hill, why on earth should this poor dim-witted farmer go all the way to Fornost--of all places!--to get rid of them?"
"It gets him away from his farm for a good, long while," Frodo answered. "If Noddy had followed the instructions he'd been given, he'd be gone until next spring."
"And you think that's the point of this 'curse'?" Merry asked. "To remove Noddy Ferndingle from his farm, one way or another?"
Frodo nodded. "Somebody else wants it."
"The little Man?" said Sam. "But why? There's no reason why it should belong to him."
"No..." Frodo agreed, then brightened suddenly. "Sam, didn't you say that Noddy had a brother who ran off?"
"That's right. Nobold, his name was."
"Any idea what happened to him? Did he leave the Shire?"
Sam shook his head; he didn't know.
"It might be worthwhile for us to find out. And I think," said Frodo decisively, "that we'll go down to Green Hill tomorrow and visit the Ferndingle farm to see what's going on there for ourselves."
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