Oops...forgot about chapter four.....as I said (say?) in ch. 5, after much deliberation, I've decided to post the rest, but not all at once...don't want to overwhelm anyone.

Chapter Four - Getting to Know You

"Wake up, Merry!"

Merry rolled over, barely opening his eyes. "Hmm."

Esmeralda rubbed his back, "Wake up, love! Breakfast is waiting."

Merry opened his eyes. He did a lot of traveling yesterday; nibbling on cold breads, meats and cheeses provided by Miss Ferne all the way to Tuckborough. He deeply inhaled the aroma of sausages and eggs cooking as he stretched out his muscles.

"Come now, sweetie, sit up for me." Merry sat up, still groggy. Esmeralda lifted the nightshirt off her son and dressed him in fresh clothes. Pouring water into the basin, she dampened a washcloth and wiped his face and hands then combed his tangled curls.

Merry started to wake up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "Mummy?"

"Hmm?" She handed him a little wooden stick with small, stiff bristles, "Here, clean your teeth."

"Is Dad coming to visit Uncle Paldin, too?"

"No, love, he's staying at home." She handed him a glass of water and held the basin in front of him, "Rinse."

A knock was heard on the door, then it opened, "Good morning, Essie!" Then seeing the small boy, "Oh, and there's the baby!"

Esmeralda smiled as she hugged her sister-in-law, "Hullo, Tina! Well, he's not quite a baby anymore!"

"I know my letters!" Merry chimed in, as if knowing his letters were all the proof in the world that he needed to show he was not a baby anymore.

"Say hullo to your Aunt Eglantine, Merry."

Merry had trouble repeating his aunt's name. "Good morning, Aunt...Aunt...Auntie!" He answered.

Eglantine laughed, lifted the child into her arms, "Aunt Tina will do! You are such a clever laddie! The last time I saw you, you were Pervinca's age!" Then at his puzzled look, "You've never seen your newest cousin, have you? You've grown so much, Merry! I'll wager you can read and write already, too!"

"Yes, I can!" He replied triumphantly.

"Little words." Esmeralda smiled.

"And I know lots of songs! Frodo learned me lots of them!" Merry started one.

"No!" Esmeralda covered his mouth as he started a naughty limerick. "Not now, sweetie!" Her face reddened a bit as one particular word escaped his lips.

Eglantine smirked, "From Frodo, eh? What a marvelous influence the lad is." She said dryly, putting her nephew down and taking his small hand in her own. Then she smiled at him, "Let's go to breakfast, shall we?"

Merry put another bite of sausage into his mouth. He kept a guarded eye on the big hobbit at the head of the table. He was a little taller than his own dad with darker hair just as his mother described him back at Brandy Hall. What she didn't tell him was that his uncle was quick to smile, laugh, and tousle the nearest child's head. He caught Merry looking at him and winked. Merry didn't know what to make of all this, so he looked away.

"Pimpernel," Paladin spoke up, "why don't you take Merry outside to play when you're both finished eating?"

"What about my chores?" Pimpernel was an odd child; she actually liked her chores--with the exception of shoveling after the animals. At the tender age of eight, she loved every aspect of living on a farm--from helping her father out in the fields, to feeding and caring for the various farm animals. But mostly she liked riding the ponies or swinging from the long rope that was tied to the highest beam in the barn, then dropping several yards down to the soft bales of hay.

Paladin shrugged his broad shoulders, "You can take him around with you most anywhere, but he's still too young to be carrying the heavy water buckets and such. Why don't you show him the baby chicks?"

Pimpernel turned to her cousin, "Have you ever seen chickens before?" Merry shook his head. "Ever seen a pig?" He shook his head again. Pimpernel was genuinely surprised; she thought everyone lived on a farm. "Don't you have any animals?" Merry only looked at her.

Esmeralda smiled at her niece's questions, "We have a few animals kept nearby, Pimpernel, but he's never been to see any of them."

"Oh." She thought for a moment. "Can I show him all of ours? Then I know of some fun things we can do after."

Esmeralda was trying to get her shy little Merry to warm up to his cousins...and especially his uncle. "That sounds like fun, doesn't it Merry?"

Merry shook his head. "Merry Brandybuck!" Esmeralda took her son by the hand and led him just outside the kitchen. She kneeled down to his level and whispered, "Now you're not being very nice to your cousin! She is trying to be friendly with you. You will go outside with her, and you will spend the day with her; you cannot spend your days inside the smial. Then she smiled, "You'll be all right with Pimpernel. She seems to like you, Merry."

"Yes, Ma'am." Merry hated being scolded by his mother.

She held his chin in her hand, "You'll have all sorts of fun today!"

"Yes, Ma'am."

Esmeralda disliked pushing Merry into doing something he clearly didn't want to do, but all she had to do was remind herself of all the little obnoxious ditties Frodo had taught him.

Both returned to the table and Merry finished off his milk, looking at his cousin. "I'm done now."

Pimpernel drank the rest of her milk. "Let's go then."

The morning sun was bright in Merry's eyes as he followed his cousin around the barn to the bin of chicken feed. She used a small pail to scoop some up and then led the way out to the coop.

Merry held his nose as they drew near it. "It smells!"

"You'll get used to it!" She said, then threw a fistful of feed before the gathering crowd of rooster and hens. "Try it." She held out the pail for her younger cousin to take from.

Merry grabbed a fistful to throw, but failed to throw it far enough and was nearly ran over by a bunch of squawking chickens and feeling a few pecks as he tried to fend them off.

"Ouch! Get them off me!" He yelled, running off and patting down his shoulders and arms.

"Let me see you." Pimpernel examined Merry's face and shirt and then laughed. Not a scratch. "Oh, you'll live!" She took the pail, scattering the rest of the contents and then said, "Follow me."

Merry followed his cousin to the backside of the barn where Pimpernel told him to wait. A few minutes passed before she returned with a large wheelbarrow. "Jump in!" She shouted, but she could barely control the large barrow herself. Merry was game, so he hopped inside, but his momentum landed him and the wheelbarrow on the other side.

Pimpernel picked it up, "Wait! Let's try it again!"

"No," Merry said, "I don't think I want to play with the wheelbarrow anymore." He stood up rubbing his bottom.

"All right." She decided to take it easy on the boy for a while. "Let's finish my chores and then we'll go see the baby chicks." They toddled off back inside the barn to finish feeding the animals.