Miss Rubysue is rather unusual.  This can be confirmed by speaking with any of her former neighbor ladies around Burrbridge, where her first burrow was located, or her childhood neighbors at Waymeet.

The neighbors in Burrbridge, who seemed to watch for Miss Rubysue’s comings and goings with considerable interest, would shake their heads and tell you that she doesn’t really spend a lot of time at her home, which seems unusual to them since it is one of the finer holes in the entire neighborhood; much nicer in fact than is the norm for a simple woodworker.

They would nod knowingly to one another and explain that, though she seems friendly enough, she will never really discuss where it is she disappears to, simply saying that she travels “out to Breeland and so forth.”  What it is she does while away remains a mystery, and a regular topic of conversation over tea where it is generally agreed that such travels and consorting with the types of people one might find in such outlandish places could lead to no good end.  ‘Of course,’ they might generally add ‘perhaps it is no surprise since Miss Rubysue is herself an outsider.’

Were you to visit Waymeet and have a chat with some of the old gaffers around the village who knew Rubysue as a child they could tell you that she was, indeed, an outsider having been born in Staddle, a small hobbit settlement nearby to the town of Bree, away out somewhere past even Buckland.  Though the exact story was never told, it was certain that Rubysue’s mother died while she was quite young and that she spent her earliest days living with her father, Garboc, on the farm of her great aunt, Matilda Boggs, a respectable hobbit lady, for an outsider, known to one and all simply as Gammy Boggs.

For reasons never explained, Garboc packed his few belongings into a wagon and brought little Rubysue to the Shire when she was about ten years old.  And though the real story was not known, it was generally agreed by one and all that Garboc was likely running from the local constable or skipping out on a gambling debt, or both.

After apparently finding little welcome elsewhere, the father and daughter had ended up with their wagon parked in Waymeet.  Garboc, unfortunately, did nothing to enhance the reputation of the people of Waymeet among the “respectable folk” in Hobbiton or Michel Delving.  Though he was ostensibly a woodworker by trade, he was generally to be found drunk and gambling if he had any money, and by the time she was twelve little Rubysue seemed to do all of the woodworking that got done.

This, of course, all became routine and part of the general backdrop of life in Waymeet.  Then, they would tell you, a couple of years back, Garboc came stumbling into the camp more drunk than usual for early morning and went barging into the wagon he still shared with his now quite mature and pretty daughter.

The wagons all being close by to one another, the argument that ensued could be heard by many.  Rubysue was obviously angry that he had come in without so much as a knock while she was dressing.  He in turn loudly announced it was his wagon to do with as he pleased.

Miss Rubysue’s temper was well known in Waymeet, and in fact from Michel Delving to Hobbiton and Bywater as well, but her reaction was still astounding and seems now to be one of almost legendary proportion ‘round Waymeet since the story is often retold over the camp fires at night.

Rubysue was incensed by her drunken father’s rude response to her.   She snatched up an ash club she had been shaping for one of the local bounders and got a couple of good whacks in before he could get out of the wagon.  Out she came behind him and caught him in the middle of the main road.  There she gave him a thorough thrashing, all the while shouting that she was a big girl now who deserved proper respect and Garboc screaming ‘Don’t kill me!’ while every resident of Waymeet looked on laughing and hooting her on.

When she finally let go, Garboc went hobbling off in the direction of Bywater.  Rubysue looked around at everyone watching and then, suddenly realizing she was wearing only her skivvies and a now wet and muddy camisole, blushed two shades redder than her hair before running back into the wagon.

She packed her few belongings and left Waymeet that morning.  For a while she worked as a bounder, and provided clubs and staves as needed among their ranks.  Then she seemed to disappear for longer and longer times, apparently traveling to Bree, but whether she was visiting her relatives there was unclear.

Each time she returned she seemed a bit better off, first showing up with a pretty pony of her own, and then purchasing one of the finer burrows in Burrbridge.  What was pretty clear, the gaffers would tell you, was that she had become mixed up in the business of the Big Folk, though the exact nature of that involvement was uncertain.