And there was the goodly pasture for the horses and the neat,
and the thymy hill-grass for the sheep; and beyond it all, the
thicket of the great wood, with its unfailing store of goodly timber
of ash and oak and holly and yoke-elm. There need no man lack unless
man compelled him, and all was rich enough and wide enough for the
waxing of a very great folk.
Now, therefore, men betook them to what was their own before the
coming of the Dusky Men; and though at first many of the delivered
thrall-folk feasted somewhat above measure, and though there were
some of them who were not very brisk at working on the earth for
their livelihood; yet were the most part of them quick of wit and
deft of hand, and they mostly fell to presently at their cunning,
both of husbandry and handicraft. Moreover, they had great love of
the kindreds, and especially of the Woodlanders, and strove to do all
things that might pleasure them. And as for those who were dull and
listless because of their many torments of the last ten years, they
would at least fetch and carry willingly for them of the kindreds;
and these last grudged them not meat and raiment and house-room, even
if they wrought but little for it, because they called to mind the
evil days of their thralldom, and bethought them how few are men's
days upon the earth.
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