The Pub Series
Title:The Pub Series ~ Story 1 Politics
Author: Rachel Stonebreaker
Email: redirect@beckyswebdesign.com
Rating: G
Characters: Frodo, Pippin, Sam, Fatty, Lotho, and Merry.
Date: 5 May 2002
Summary: see previous chapters
Disclaimer: see previous chapters
Story Notes: see previous chapters
Review notes: Reviews are nice. Especially when they point out things like I had labeled the entire Esmeralda, Paladin, Saradoc, and Eglantine relationship incorrectly besides listing Eglantine as Saradoc's brother. HMMPFF. It would have been nice if someone would have told me I'd screwed up on the genealogy thing!
Story 1 ~ Politics
Chapter 4 ~ The Good Old DaysOh, those pranks.. Pippin finished his ale, smiled fondly, and closed his eyes again. During summer months, Merry would spend weeks in Tookborough while his father, the Master of Buckland, conducted business "in town". With Merry's mother and Pip's father's being sister and brother, it only made sense that Merry stay there as they were such close relations and Seradoc could trust Paladin to keep an eye on his son, Meriadoc. At first, Pippin was too young to know what he was missing out on when Merry would take off for Bag End early mornings to go visit Frodo. Merry missed Frodo something fierce since Frodo's move and they would make up for lost time by devising elaborate games and outings all summer long. But once Merry discovered that the young Pippin had no fear of ANYTHING and was quite gullible, he was dragging the youngster with him whenever he could talk Pippin's father into letting them both go out.
Merry being Pippin's closest cousin and Frodo's best friend, got away with inviting Pippin along on many an adventure, though he was really so much younger than everyone else. Unbeknownst to him, everyone agreed to the little tag along because Merry convinced the older lads he knew he could talk Pippin into doing anything and because Pip was so much younger, he was smaller than any of them. This meant they could easily hoist him up into the branches of a fruit tree and talk him into climbing high up to reach the biggest peaches or apples or plums. None of the smaller lads could conquer their fear of heights enough to climb that high and all the older ones who could climb couldn't get that high because of their size. Or they'd push him through a frightfully small hole in the fence surrounding which ever farmer's fields they decided to attack that day. He was always game for a quick incursion into those crops just begging to be liberated. Especially since it earned him the respect of the older lads. Or after distracting the adults at a party and picking the lock on a pantry they were obviously supposed to stay OUT of, they would shove him in, relock the door, loiter about, and then as if on cue, reverse the process of distraction and picking the lock, this time dragging him OUT of the pantry always much to their delight as Pippin never failed to come out with anything less than some tastiest treat; treacle, tarts, honey combs, and once an entire tray of mince tarts which they all ate with runcible spoons.
Pippin would eagerly wait for the gang to come collect him up on summer mornings. He was oh so reckless and knew no caution. And they rewarded him by letting him accompany them. This was pure joy for Pippin! He worked harder at learning how to act older than he ever studied at his letters. He started smoking at a younger age than any of them. And he could out drink some before his 25th birthday. He amazed them all and sometimes irritated them to the point of nearly being throttled on more than one occasion. Yet everyone took care of him. They'd never send him home drunk. One would take the mission of trundling him off to stay with Frodo at Bag End while one or two others would stop by his parents on their way home and report that he had decided to stay over at his cousin's. They'd scream and yell at the farmer's brutish dogs as the evil creatures chased Pippin from the fields. Of course they were always on the other side of the fence. But still they threatened to castrate the beasts (not that the dogs understood this, but it made Pippin smile) and threw stones to keep them at bay as Pippin tossed the sacks of thieved goods over the fence and squeezed through to safety.
~ End Chapter
Do you care to know what a runcible spoon is? http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a961108a.html
