CHAPTER Three - Just A Boy...

"Momma, who's going to take Miss Ruby her basket?", Perva asked her mother while holding a large basket full of breads, cheese, and dried fruit.

Eglantine paused from peeling potatoes, and her eyes went wide. "Goodness, child! I completely forgot about Miss Ruby's basket earlier when Pim hurt her ankle! I sent Pim out to fetch the eggs when she took a notion to the wooden fence--foolish girl!" Eglantine thought for a moment, but came up with no answers.

"Momma!", cried Perva, "I can go!"

"No, dear, you're too young to go that distance all by yourself. I'll find someone else."

"Momma,", Perva said, "not alone! Merry can come with me!"

"Sweetie, he's not long out of the sick bed himself. I don't think he can make a journey that far, either."

"What journey?", Merry walked into the kitchen and overheard himself being spoken of.

"To Miss Ruby's", replied Perva, "she lives away down past Cousin Ferdinand's farm."

"Oh, that's not too far, Auntie", Merry replied, "I'll be happy to go with Perva to visit Miss Ruby."

"Merry, you're just a boy yourself--it's still too far for young ones to go all

by themselves." Eglantine added, "Only the day before last, Paladin told me he saw Big Folk traveling on the main road, and I didn't like the sound of it."

Merry's face fell. Just a boy....

Eglantine saw the effect of her words-- "Merry, I didn't mean to hurt you; I

just worry after your safety. Your mother would be angry with me if she knew I let you travel far without an escort."

"We'll be together!", Perva said. "There'll be two of us; no one will

bother us if they see two are together."

Eglantine thought better of sending two helpless children away yonder on their own, but she had sent Pearl to fetch the local healer, Mrs. Longbottom, for Pim and...well, Miss Ruby was depending on this basket.

Miss Ruby was yet another of Eglantine's self-imposed charges. She was alone and elderly at the ripe old age of ninety-nine. With no husband or children to look after her, she was all that was left of her family. She tended a tiny garden to make ends meet, but now her eyesight was failing, and so Eglantine would have Pearl, Pim and Perva take her a basket of bread and eggs twice a week to aid her.

"I can walk that far, auntie. Let me go with Perva...please.", Merry insisted; his deep blue eyes pled his case. Although he never met Miss Ruby, he knew of her and her circumstances and wanted to help.

If Miss Ruby didn't get her basket, she won't have much to eat for a while,

except a few vegetables from her bit of garden, Eglantine thought it over once again. Even at old age, hobbits still had voracious appetites. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about; and perhaps there was, but she had heard nothing else in the last two days of the foreign travelers.

"Oh, alright", Eglantine gave in. Paladin may have a few words to say about this, though..