These are not my characters.  I stole borrowed all of them from J.R.R. Tolkien.  This, in case you didn't know, is my disclaimer.  Thank you for reading it and for reading the story that follows it.

G.W.     03/14/2005

This was originally written for one of Marigold's Challenges, so if it seems that you've read it before, then you probably have.

Title:  “A JUST BECAUSE GIFT”

Rated:  G

Written by:  Grey_wonderer for challenge 12

The starting sentence was: “I’m afraid that it’s broken,  ______.”

This one features, Merry who is 16/17, Pippin who is 8, Frodo who is 30, Bilbo, and Esmeralda Brandybuck.

Summary:  Pippin discovers something interesting in the Hobbiton junk shop that brings back memories for Bilbo.

 “A JUST BECAUSE GIFT”

“I’m afraid that it’s broken, lads,” the shopkeeper called out as Merry attempted to wind the toy with the small key at its base.

“It is?” Pippin asked.  “Who broke it and what did it used to do?”

“I just sell these things when folks bring them in, lad,” the old hobbit said.  “I don’t know what it did before I came by it.”

“Can you fix it, Merry?” Pippin asked, watching Merry inspect the toy.

“Maybe, if I could open it up and have a look inside,” Merry said, still turning it over in his hands and frowning at it.

“You have to buy it if you plan to start taking it apart,” the shopkeeper warned.  “And if you can’t fix it, then you’re stuck with it.  There’s a sign up you know.”

“What sign?” Pippin asked, walking over to the old hobbit and looking up at him.

“The one in the window that says all sales are final and all items are as they come,” the shopkeeper said, looking down at the small hobbit-lad.

“What does that mean?” Pippin frowned.  “What is, as they come?”

“It means that if it was broken when you bought it, that you still have to keep it and you can’t get your money back if it doesn’t work,” Merry said, still studying the toy.

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t mind that, then,” Pippin smiled.  “You said it was broke so that’s fair.  It’s still pretty and I like the pony on it.  Can we get it with my pennies, Merry?”

“How many do you have, Pippin?” Bilbo asked, coming over and putting his hand on the youngster’s head.  “What is it that you want to buy?”

“I want that thing there that Merry has,” Pippin said, taking one of Bilbo’s hands and leading him over to Merry.  “It doesn’t work, but maybe Merry can fix it if he can take it apart.  See, it has a pony on it.”

“I might be able to fix it,” Merry said, looking up at Bilbo and holding the toy out for his older cousin to inspect.

Bilbo’s eyes softened and he took the toy in his hands and smiled.

“See, it’s pretty even if it doesn’t work,” Pippin said, seeing the smile on Bilbo’s face.  “Can I have it?”

“If you don’t let him get this one, he’ll pick out something worse,” Merry advised.  “At least this one is pretty.  Last time he drug me in here, he bought some sort of thing that had wheels and springs and we never did make that one work.  I’m not even sure what it was.”

“I thought it would work and then we’d know what it was by what it did, Merry,” Pippin objected.  “It was still a nice thing.”

“Are you alright, Bilbo?” Merry frowned, noticing that Bilbo was still staring at the toy.

“Oh, yes, I’m quite well, Merry-lad,” Bilbo said, absently.

“Can I buy this?” Pippin asked, tugging at Bilbo’s sleeve and bouncing on his toes.  “Can I?  I have two pennies.  Is that enough for something that is broken?”

“Why do you always have to buy broken stuff with your money, Pip?” Merry asked.  “You could get something new that works, you know.”

“I like this old store, Merry,” Pippin said, smiling.  “They never have anything that works but I don’t mind.”  He then returned to tugging Bilbo’s sleeve.  “Can I get it?”

“Yes, if you really do want it,” Bilbo smiled.  “In fact, I’ll get it for you.” 

Pippin grinned and followed Bilbo to the counter.  Merry sighed and joined them.  “He’s spoiling you,” Merry whispered to Pippin.

“I know,” Pippin smiled.  “You’ll fix it won’t you Merry?”

“I can try, Pip, but I don’t know if I will be able to fix it,” Merry said.  “This one is complicated.  It isn’t like the spring thing with the wheels, you know.”

“I know,” Pippin said.  “We almost know what this one is.  We never did figure out what that spring thing with the wheels was.”

“How much for this one?” Bilbo asked the old shopkeeper.  “The little lad is attached to it.”

“Doesn’t work,” the shopkeeper advised.  “And I’ll not take it back.”

“All items are as they come,” Pippin told Bilbo.  “It’s on the sign in the window.”

“That’s fair enough,” Bilbo said.  ‘How much?”

“I suppose three shire pennies would do seeing as how the little one is a regular customer of mine,” the shopkeeper said, smiling at Pippin.

“That’s three whole pennies for a broken toy,” Merry objected.

“But he’s being nice, cause I’m regular,” Pippin explained, smiling at the shopkeeper.

“Oh, all right, then, two pennies,” the shopkeeper relented, with a frown at Merry.

“It’s a bargain!” Pippin crowed.

“Yes, I suspect that it is,” Bilbo said, placing two pennies on the counter and then handing the toy to Pippin.  “Come on, lads.  Let’s go and get Frodo out of the books and head back to Bag End for a nice lunch.”

“I’ll get him,” Pippin grinned.  “I want him to see my new toy.”  He charged off in the direction of the used books with the toy firmly clutched in both hands.

As they followed him, Bilbo winked at Merry and said, “Nice bargaining, Merry, my lad.  You’ll make a fine trader with practice.”  He patted Merry’s shoulder and they followed the sound of Pippin’s feet smacking against the floor of the shop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

All through lunch, Bilbo seemed distracted by something.  Frodo noticed it at once and wondered what it might be, but his older cousin gave no indication.  He just continued to glance at Pippin’s latest junk shop purchase and smile.

Once Pippin had been put down for his afternoon nap, Frodo decided to ask again.  “Bilbo, what’s wrong?”

“Wrong?  Why nothing at all, my lad,” Bilbo replied, settling himself in his chair by the fire.

“You just seem a bit distracted,” Frodo said.  “It’s as if you have something on your mind.  Are you worried about something?”

“No, but I suppose I have been doing some thinking,” Bilbo admitted, lighting his pipe.

Merry looked up from his examination of Pippin toy.  “Did Pippin do something he shouldn’t have?” Merry asked.

Bilbo chuckled.  “Not this time.  No, I was just remembering something from a long time ago.”

“A story?” Merry asked, hopefully, setting the toy down and giving his full attention to Bilbo.

“Yes, in a way,” Bilbo smiled.  “And it is a story about Pippin’s new toy.”  He leaned forward and Merry handed him the toy.

Just then Pippin came into the room, rubbing his eyes and yawning.  “If the story’s about my toy, then I get to hear it too,” he said, darting out of Merry’s and Frodo’s reach and climbing into Bilbo’s lap.

“You are supposed to be having a nap, Peregrin Took,” Merry said, trying to sound stern.

“I don’t need one, Merry,” Pippin said, scooting closer to Bilbo.  “Besides, I want to hear the story about my toy.”

Bilbo looked down at the little lad and sighed, “You’re going to be grumpy if you don’t have a nap, aren’t you?”

“I won’t be,” Pippin said.  “I promise.  I’m eight now, and I hardly ever get grumpy now that I’m older.”

Frodo grinned and Merry rolled his eyes and hissed, “He’s spoiling him.”

“Well, I suppose if you promise to go to bed like a good lad after supper, that you can stay and listen to the story,” Bilbo said, with a wink at Frodo.  “You sit over on the sofa with Frodo and I’ll tell you the story.”

Pippin stuck out his tongue at Merry and climbed onto the sofa and leaned against Frodo, yawning.  Frodo winked at Merry and began to run his fingers through Pippin’s curls sliding back a bit so that the lad was nearly lying down.  “Tell us about Pippin’s toy, Bilbo,” Frodo said.

“Come and sit with us, Merry,” Pippin invited, yawning wider this time and fighting to keep his eyes open.

Merry grinned and climbed onto the sofa, putting Pippin’s feet in his lap and gently rubbing them with a wink at Frodo.  “Pay attention and be quiet, Pip.”

“I will, Merry,” Pippin said, wiggling his toes a bit.

Bilbo smiled and held up the small toy for all three lads to see.  “This was once a musical toy.  When you wound up the key in its base, it played a tune and this little white, pony spun around in a circle on the base while the song played.”  Bilbo sat the toy down on the table next to him and continued.  “When I was a bit younger than I am now, I was looking for a special gift for a little cousin of mine who adored ponies.  She loved to ride and even though she was only twelve, she was a very excellent rider.  I wanted to get her something special and so I decided that I would send to Dale for the gift.”

“This toy came from the Dwarves?” Merry asked, excited by this news.  Everything that came from the Dwarves was made very well and was always special.  The Dwarves made the best toys ever.

“Yes, it was made in Dale by the Dwarves,” Bilbo said.  He then pointed to Pippin who was sound asleep and Frodo carefully put the blanket from the back of the sofa across his little cousin.

Bilbo cleared his throat, took a puff on his pipe, and continued his story.  “It took nearly a year to get this back, but I sent a letter requesting that my friends make something with a pony on it for a lass of twelve.  I told them that it should be a white pony because she had a white pony that she rode and this is the toy that they sent to me.”

“Did the lass like it?” Merry asked.

“Yes, Merry, she did indeed,” Bilbo smiled.  “She was thirteen by the time that this arrived, but she still had the little white pony and she still loved to ride.  I remember that on the day that I brought this out to her family’s farm, she was just coming into the smial after riding her pony.”

“Was it a birthday gift?” Merry asked as Pippin shifted a bit on the sofa and kicked Merry in the knee with his foot.  Merry caught hold of the foot and held it in place to prevent further kicking.  “Was it?”

“No, it wasn’t my birthday, lad,” Bilbo smiled.  “The gift was a ‘just because’ gift.”

“Because?” Merry wondered.

“Just because I wanted to give her something,” Bilbo smiled.  “She was a spunky little lass with a quick laugh and she was always full of fun.  Her parents, her older sisters and her brother were all such serious-minded hobbits that sometimes I just felt like doing something nice for her.  I admired her nerve, Merry.  She would try things that none of the other lasses would do.”

“She did lad things?” Merry asked, amused by this notion.

“She could run faster than most of the lads, she could ride better than all of them, and she could whistle louder,” Bilbo chuckled.  “Why she could even out shoot them with a sling shot and she was always into something.”

“Like Pippin,” Merry said, relaxing his hold on the child’s foot and straightening the blanket that covered him.

“A bit like Pippin,” Bilbo nodded.  “She was also a tree-climber.”

Frodo laughed.  “That sounds like a Took to me.”

“I remember giving her this little toy that afternoon and watching her eyes light up,” Bilbo smiled.  “She dearly loved it.  I also remember that some years later, after she was a grown hobbit with a babe of her own, she confessed to me that her father had given the toy away when the music box had failed to work.  Her father had decided that the toy had out-lived its usefulness and so he had given it to a hobbit who had done some work for them.  She hadn’t known it was gone until it was too late.”

“Her father just gave it away?” Merry frowned.  “Wasn’t she angry?”

“I suppose that she might have been,” Bilbo said.  “She didn’t really say much about that because when she told me that it was gone, she was all grown and married herself.  We were talking about the little pony because of a gift that I had given to her little one.”

“What was that gift?” Frodo asked.

“It was a little hand-carved dog,” Bilbo smiled.

“The tail wags when you wind him up,” Merry said, excitedly.  “You gave that dog to me when I was a faunt.”  Pippin stirred again, but Merry took no notice this time.  “This little pony toy was my mum’s wasn’t it?”

“It was indeed,” Bilbo said.

“Was she really that good a rider?” Merry asked.

“Yes, she was,” Bilbo said.  “She is still one of the finest riders in all of the Shire, my lad.  Your mother can outride almost anyone.”

“Do you suppose that the music box in this toy can be fixed?” Merry asked.

“I could send it to Dale and I am sure that they could make it work again,” Bilbo said.  “But you’d have to talk Pippin out of it.  He did see it first and it is his now.”

Merry nodded, and looked down at his sleeping cousin.  “I think if he knew the story, that he wouldn’t mind giving it up.  I might have to take him back to the junk shop and let him get something to replace it with, but I think he would let me have it.”

“I think so too,” Frodo said, running a hand through Pippin’s curls.

“It may take some time to get it back,” Bilbo admitted.  “You know the last time, it took a whole year.”

“I can wait,” Merry said.  “I want mum to have it again.  You said she wanted it after I was born.”

“I think she wanted it to give to you,” Bilbo said.

“Well, then it will be a surprise when I give it to her,” Merry grinned.

Once he was fully awake and had heard the entire story, Pippin was more than willing to give his new toy to Merry’s mum.  Merry was right in that he was required to make a trip with his little cousin back to the junk shop, but it was a small price to pay in order to get such a grand surprise for his mother.  Two hours in the junk shop yielded another find to Pippin’s liking and Bilbo was able to send the toy pony off to Dale with some Dwarf tradesmen who regularly passed through Hobbiton at that time of the year.

It was nearly fourteen months before the toy was returned in newly restored condition.  Merry marveled as Bilbo presented him with the toy pony.  It had a fresh coat of paint and the key wound when turned and the music once again played.  It sounded like little tinkling bells as it played the lovely old lullaby that it had played when Bilbo had first given it to Esmeralda Took Brandybuck.

Merry sat the small, carefully wrapped package on the kitchen table in front of his mother and grinned.  “I have something for you, mum,” he said.

“Why whatever is this for, then?” Esmeralda asked.  “It isn’t your birthday nor is it mine, my darlin’ lad.  What’s the occasion?”

“This is a ‘just because’ present,” Merry said, sitting down across from her to watch her unwrap it.

She leaned her head to one side and regarded him with her bright, green eyes.  “It is, is it?”

“It is, indeed,” Merry smiled, so excited that he could barely sit still.

“Well, then,” she smiled back at her only child.  “I suspect that I best open it.”

He watched as she removed the wrapping and pulled the toy from the box.  Her eyes immediately filled with tears and she looked over at Merry in complete surprise.  “Where did you get this?” she whispered.

“Pippin found it in the junk shop in Hobbiton over a year ago,” Merry said.  “It wasn’t meant to make you cry.”  He looked over at her, worried that he had somehow done something wrong.

“I’m crying because I am so very happy to see this,” she said, smiling through her tears.  “I never thought to see it again and it was very dear to me.  But this can’t be the same one, Merry.  Mine was old and the paint on it was fading the last time that I saw it.  This one is like new.”

Merry got up and came around the table and stood beside of her.  “It’s yours, mum.  Bilbo sent it to Dale for repairs, listen,” he said, and he wound the key on the base of the box.  They listened as the tinkling music played the lovely lullaby.

Merry watched as his mother ran her hands over the little pony and smiled.  She then stood and hugged him, fiercely.  “You are the best son that any mother ever had, Merry, my darlin’,” she whispered in his ear.  Fourteen months, a two hour trip to the Hobbiton junk shop with Pippin and everything else involved was suddenly more than worth it.  His mum was happy and he had made that happen with a little help from Bilbo and some Dwarves in Dale.

The End