My name is Ruby Gardner and I am nine. My hair is red which is why I am called Ruby. Some of my sisters have fair hair and so they have fair names, mostly after flowers. Ruby is not a flower, ruby is a jool. My Uncle Frodo says I can have a ruby to wear around my neck when I am thirty-three, but that is twenty-four years away which is a very long time.

I live in a smial in Hobbiton called Bag End. It is very big which is good because a lot of people live here. My Uncle Frodo is the Master of Bag End, and Mummy Rose is the Mistress even though she is not married to Uncle Frodo. She is married to Sam-dad, who is the mayor and has a wax seal for letters that tells people that he is the mayor. He gets to boss all the other hobbits, but Mummy bosses him sometimes too.

I have a lot of sisters and a lot of brothers and some cats and a bird, it is not really my bird but it sings outside the window of the bedroom I share with Primrose and Daisy who are my sisters and so I like to say it is my bird.

My friend Peony Ann says it is confusing, so many in one family. She has two brothers and a Mum and a Dad and a Gammer. She says it is better to have a flower name than a jool name because she can have peonies any time she wants and I don't have any rubies. But her hair is brown and mine is red, and Mummy says that makes me stand out like a poppy in a nettle patch. Poppy is a nice name, and there are a lot more poppies than rubies to be found in the Shire, but I have had my name for all my life now and am used to it.

Hope and Del live with us too, Del's name is longer than just Del but I cannot write it properly yet. Hope works with Uncle on writing things, like I am writing this. I do not need help with my writing except for some of the spelling, which my sister Rose is helping me with.

My sister Rose has some bruises on her arm that look a bit like a hand without the proper number of fingers. I think I know how she got it, but she says it does not matter and I should not meddle. I am not meddling, I am finding things out. My sister Rose takes care of Uncle Frodo when Mummy and Sam-dad are busy with the rest of us children and with bossing hobbits around.

Uncle Frodo can fold paper into the shape of a bird and make the wings flap, and he gives very good hugs and cuddles when he is happy. It is very sad when people are sick and sometimes people die which is what happened to Peony Ann's Gaffer the winter before the one before the last one. Mummy says I am talking nonsense when I ask if Uncle is going to die from being sad which is good because we all love him a lot and it would be sad.

My brother Merry says I can have a try on his pony if I am very careful so I am going to stop writing for now. The End by Ruby Gardner.

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Pretty Good Year | email Mary