Posted: July 24, 2000 at 09:40:37: by Mordomin
IMO, Sam's "spying" may have started at the time of the "Long-Expected Party" or even before. Remember, Merry saw Bilbo use the Ring, and that must have been some time before the party. Frodo's youthful friends may not have understood why Frodo would be forced to leave the Shire, but they had fair reason to suspect that he might try to "go Bilbo" (i.e., slip away suddenly and w/o notice) on them. Only through observing (and spying, or "sneaking" as Gollum would say, LOL) over 17 years did they come to realize that danger, rather than wanderlust, would be Frodo's reason for departing.
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