Pippin Musing 2: More Than Mushrooms
The Shire Early Fall 1425 (Shire reckoning)
Pippin almost danced on his way home. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy. He felt as if he cold fly like one of the great eagles and touch the sky. He grinned and realized he couldn't wait to tell Merry that he now understood why his friend could often talk of nothing except Estella. He was happy his friend was having such a successful courtship with Miss Estella Bolger but had been annoyed at how much it seemed to occupy Merry. Well, today's events showed him how quickly and completely the lightening-bolt of romance could strike a hobbit.
That morning, Peregrin was looking for mushrooms, not hobbit-lasses. It had been such a warm day, as warm as any in summer, and here had been a soft, steady rain two days before that gave him hope of finding mushrooms. Mushroom hunting was certainly a more pleasurable exercise than having tea with yet another girl who was either greedy for the Took gold, vapid, or both. The latest and most persistent was both. She would have to ensnare some other hobbit with her flaxen curls, which were not such a rarity anymore. With an eye to avoiding husband-hunting ladies, Pippin took a sack for the mushrooms, some bread and cheese for his lunch, and stepped out into the golden day.
The hunt exceeded his expectations. The rich, loamy floor of the woods harbored many mushrooms and the trees, whose leaves were beginning to turn shades of gold and russet, scraped a deep blue sky. The quality of the light, the color of some of the leaves, and many of fall flowers that bloomed in the clearings, were all golden and Pippin found many mushrooms.
His greatest discover was not mushrooms and had come on his way home. After filling his sack, he wandered still further because of the loveliness of the day. He eventually returned to the path and was passing a medium-sized smial where a small, dark-haired hobbit-maid was cutting spent blooms off roses bushes that reveled in a bumper-crop of fall blooms and dropping them into a basket at her feet when his ears began to twitch and he heard a shrill, all-too-familiar voice coming from further down the path. Peregrin, son of Paladin, hero of the Shire dove behind the largest of the rose bushes. The hobbit-maid quirked an eyebrow at him and came closer.
"Master Peregrin," she said, "Are you hiding from someone?"
He turned pink from his cheeks to the tips of his ears and replied, "I would rather face orcs than the girl who is walking toward us."
She smiled but did not give him away. After the gilt-haired disturbance passed, he found out that the dark-haired maid's name was Diamond of Long- Cleeve and she knew him although he didn't remember seeing her before, although he was sure he would have noticed such remarkable eyes. She was five years younger than him and had been in her early tweens when he left on the quest. Her mother called that lunch was ready and she should invite Pippin in because there was plenty to go around. Pippin fried up some of the mushrooms as an addition to the lunch and gave some to the ladies. This still left plenty for his father. He spent a pleasant time talking with Diamond and her mother and went home thinking about Diamond's golden eyes. He would have to invite her to have dinner with his father. He would have Merry and Estella over too and make a party of it.
The Shire Early Fall 1425 (Shire reckoning)
Pippin almost danced on his way home. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy. He felt as if he cold fly like one of the great eagles and touch the sky. He grinned and realized he couldn't wait to tell Merry that he now understood why his friend could often talk of nothing except Estella. He was happy his friend was having such a successful courtship with Miss Estella Bolger but had been annoyed at how much it seemed to occupy Merry. Well, today's events showed him how quickly and completely the lightening-bolt of romance could strike a hobbit.
That morning, Peregrin was looking for mushrooms, not hobbit-lasses. It had been such a warm day, as warm as any in summer, and here had been a soft, steady rain two days before that gave him hope of finding mushrooms. Mushroom hunting was certainly a more pleasurable exercise than having tea with yet another girl who was either greedy for the Took gold, vapid, or both. The latest and most persistent was both. She would have to ensnare some other hobbit with her flaxen curls, which were not such a rarity anymore. With an eye to avoiding husband-hunting ladies, Pippin took a sack for the mushrooms, some bread and cheese for his lunch, and stepped out into the golden day.
The hunt exceeded his expectations. The rich, loamy floor of the woods harbored many mushrooms and the trees, whose leaves were beginning to turn shades of gold and russet, scraped a deep blue sky. The quality of the light, the color of some of the leaves, and many of fall flowers that bloomed in the clearings, were all golden and Pippin found many mushrooms.
His greatest discover was not mushrooms and had come on his way home. After filling his sack, he wandered still further because of the loveliness of the day. He eventually returned to the path and was passing a medium-sized smial where a small, dark-haired hobbit-maid was cutting spent blooms off roses bushes that reveled in a bumper-crop of fall blooms and dropping them into a basket at her feet when his ears began to twitch and he heard a shrill, all-too-familiar voice coming from further down the path. Peregrin, son of Paladin, hero of the Shire dove behind the largest of the rose bushes. The hobbit-maid quirked an eyebrow at him and came closer.
"Master Peregrin," she said, "Are you hiding from someone?"
He turned pink from his cheeks to the tips of his ears and replied, "I would rather face orcs than the girl who is walking toward us."
She smiled but did not give him away. After the gilt-haired disturbance passed, he found out that the dark-haired maid's name was Diamond of Long- Cleeve and she knew him although he didn't remember seeing her before, although he was sure he would have noticed such remarkable eyes. She was five years younger than him and had been in her early tweens when he left on the quest. Her mother called that lunch was ready and she should invite Pippin in because there was plenty to go around. Pippin fried up some of the mushrooms as an addition to the lunch and gave some to the ladies. This still left plenty for his father. He spent a pleasant time talking with Diamond and her mother and went home thinking about Diamond's golden eyes. He would have to invite her to have dinner with his father. He would have Merry and Estella over too and make a party of it.
