Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the ring

Comments
1. Frodo is now getting ready to leave the shire and move to Brandybuck.
2. He is selling his house and many of his other good possessions to the Sackville Baggin's whom more or less have hated Frodo through out the years.
3. Gandalf has gone off and left frodo to himself again in search of information.
4. Frodo has began his journey away from the shire with his friends Sam and Pippin.
5. On their way to Frodo's new home they hear a rider coming down the rode so they decide to get off only to see a man cloaked in black come down the rode. The rider gets off his horse right were Frodo and his friends are hiding and starts looking and sniffing. Frodo suspects the rider was looking for him.
Questions.
1. Why does Frodo sell Bag end to his own enemies?
2. What information is Gandalf looking for?
3. Why does merry have to go ahead?
4. Why does the Rider hide his Face?
Vocab.
1.cloaked.Something that covers or conceals.
2.plundering.To seize wrongfully or by force.
3.inquisitive.Unduly or inappropriately curious.
literature terms
1.irony. The home that Bilbo never wanted to fall into the Sackville Baggin's hands did.
2.anthropomorphic. you are allowed to read what a fox that see what the hobbits sleeping under a tree is thinking and it is very much like a humans thoughts.