Irony by Celeste
When did Merry get his first pony of his own?

“Please, please, pleaaase may I have a dog?” Meriadoc Brandybuck begged his parents.

“No, son, I’m afraid not.” his mother answered.

“Why not?” the young hobbit whined.

“Wherever would we keep a dog? We live in the Hall, Merry, we don’t have a yard to pen one up in.” Saradoc said reasonably.

“We could keep him inside.” Merry argued.

“There isn’t enough room,” his now somewhat exasperated father replied.

Merry just sighed, stormed into his bedroom, and slammed the door. He was determined to get a dog, no matter what he had to do to obtain one.

A dog would be something to play with that was not overly talkative, and would listen to him when hobbits did not.

Surely there must be a way…he smiled slowly. His parents said there was not enough room, so he would just have to make extra space.

Pulling out the tool set he had received for Frodo’s birthday, he set to work dismantling his bed. He took the mattress and bedclothes and made them up neatly in the closet. He propped the pieces of the frame up against one corner of his bedroom. The desk could not be dismantled as it was all one piece, so he just took everything off of it, pushed it into another corner, and put everything back on it. Surely his bedroom would be big enough for a dog, even without those two corners.

Upon returning to his closet, Merry saw that it would be difficult to sleep there with clothes hanging over his head, so he neatly folded his clothes and tried to put them in his desk.

He tried putting them in the drawers, on top of the desk, on top of the chair on top of the desk, and everywhere else he could think of. There simply was not enough room. He had always kept everything in and on his desk. It was covered with books, quills, ink, toys, mathoms, and other miscellaneous objects. In fact, it was even messier than usual because he had gathered up fragments from all over his room and put them there to make room for the dog he so desperately wanted.

Merry sighed in frustration, and sat for some time trying to think of a solution. He did not want to cheat the poor dog out of any more corners!

Finally, it occurred to him that the rod in his closet simply was not high enough. If he nailed one of his sheets to the ceiling, he could put his clothes in that and they would not be in his way. He may have to use a chair to reach them, but if he could get a dog, that would be no sore trial.

With renewed determination, the hobbit set to work nailing up the sheet. He was on the fourth corner when his growing excitement caused him to hammer his finger rather hard, and he cried out.

Saradoc frantically burst into the room, knowing that Merry was not the type to scream indoors. Deciding to ignore the unusual state of the room for the moment, he quickly discerned the injury.

He called for one of the workers to bring a bowl of water, as cold as could be found, and had Merry soak his already dark-colored finger to keep it from swelling too much.

When this was done, he decided to ask what was going on. Upon hearing the explanation, he sighed and explained why giving the dog the bedroom and sleeping in the closet was simply not fitting for the heir to the Master of Buckland.

“Am I in trouble?” Merry asked with the wide, sad eyes of a manipulative child.

“You should be, but I will be merciful this time.” Saradoc hugged his son.

A few weeks later, Saradoc called for Merry.

“I have a surprise for you son. Come with me.”

He led the lad down to the stables and presented Merry with his first pony.

“Well thank you, but doesn’t it seem funny that I can’t have a dog because there isn’t enough room, yet you give me a pony?”

“That’s because I don’t think even you would try to keep a pony in your bedroom.”

Both hobbits laughed and hugged, and Merry named his new pony Irony.