In a pit in the sod was a Hob. Not a wet pit of mud and yuk and oft a bug or ten; nor yet a dry ash pit you may not sit or eat in. It was a Hob-pit, and so had low-key joy.
You get in by an O, of oak in fir-hue; you tug on the sun-hue orb in the mid. In it is a den, as an O too: an ace den to sit and yak, no ash or mud, oak by the way and a big rug on the sod. It has a lot to sit on, and a peg or two to put a hat on - the Hob has joy if any go to see him.
The den is big, a way in the tor - The Tor, as all say it in the Hob-Dun - and it has oft a way to a wee den. May the Hob go up? No! It is all on one way - a den for bed or to sit, to eat or for a hat (or ten). On one paw all is ace, for you can see out to the lea and sky, and the wet way far off.
Our Hob had a lot of yen, and he was a Hob of Bag. The Bag-Hob had a den by The Tor ere Men dug ore; all saw a Bag-Hob as low-key, for he had the yen, but he did not go far on a job or do any odd bit. How a Bag-Hob may see a day, you can see ere you ask him.
Our fic is of a Hob of Bag who had a big job, far far off, and did a lot he did not ken ere he did it. The Hob by The Tor may not see him as low-key, but he got... ah, you may see if he got owt at all in the end.
The mum of our Hob... who are the Hob? I can say for you, as the Hob are now shy of Big Men (us, you see). A Hob is (or was) a wee Man, too wee for a Nog of lip-fur. A Hob has no lip-fur. He has no hex, but can run far in a sec if a Big Man is on the way; we low as an ox to the ear of a Hob. He is oft fat; he has on hue of fir and of sun, a lot of hue; his toe has fur and is fit to run on; his arm is fit to rig or jig, he has an air of joy o'er him and joy in his eye (a big joy if he can eat, for a Hob may eat as oft as he can). So now you get it.
As I did say, the mom of our Hob - of Bil of Bag, esq. - was Bel Tuk, a top kid of the Old Tuk, who ran the Hob-kin o'er The Wet. Oft a Hob (not a Tuk) may say a Tuk of a far day had wed an Elf. Mad, yes, but the Tuk are too odd to say it was not so. Oft may one or two go far off on a big job, and the Hob saw her not at all. The Tuk may say she did die, or wed a far Hob, but all saw the Tuk are not low-key as the Bag are (but had a lot of yen).
In her eld Bel Tuk did not go off, for she wed Mr. Bug of Bag. Bug, he was the dad of Bil, dug a big rad Hob-pit for her (and did use her yen). You may not see one as it in The Tor or on The Tor or o'er The Wet, and she sat in it to the day she did die. But it may be that Bil, her son, who was to eye and ear as his dad, got an odd bit of Tuk off his mum, hid in his eye. It was a shy bit if so, and did not get out til Bil of Bag was a man, and the rad Hob-pit his dad had dug was all his, and all may see he was set in his way and not to go at all.
It is fun to use the New Way, for you can do it by eye; no big set of pen-bit to use, no law to say "do it so!". You sum the bit, and see if it is too big, and... it is all! Rad fun; not as to pen it as an Elf may, not at all.
Nog - the Wee Men who get lip-fur. So an elf may say it; one dun of the Wee Men was "Nog-rod", or Wee Man-den, in Elf.
hS