I love that Tolkien took a paragraph aside in Bree, after all the horses were run off, just to let us know that A) Merry’s ponies were going to be fine and B) Mr. Butterbur would not, in the long run, suffer financially by the incident. He understood what was really important.
Tolkien would have let us know how the Cabbage Man was doing.
One of the recurring themes in Tolkien’s works is that the world belongs to the baker down the street as much as it does to the Lord of the Golden Hall. In almost every city we visit, Tolkien talks about shops and living arrangements and where people work and how they get their food.
One of the noticeable things about Tolkien’s Enemies are their complete disdain for the little people – even the ones that are loyal to them. Smaug, Sauron, Saruman are all rich, powerful, knowledgeable. All of them are disdainful of those weaker and smaller than they are, while Sauron and Saruman are obsequious to those stronger than they are (until they can become stronger). They don’t value parties and lunch and working in the garden.
They’ve missed the point of life.