A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.

He stands not alone. You would die before your stroke fell.

The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, For none now live who remember it.

Evidently we look so much alike that your desire to make an incurable dent in my hat must be excused.

In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him.

deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone.

I am wholly in favour of 'dull stodges'. A surprising large proportion prove 'educable': for which a primary qualification is the willingness to do work.