Frodo is 34, Merry is 20 and Pippin is 12.

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It had actually snowed! It never snowed while Pippin was in Buckland. For some reason he’d never been here with Merry when it had snowed. Pippin was fairly bursting with excitement at the prospect of a day out of doors with Merry in the snow.

He dressed hurriedly. Merry was already up and out of the room before Pippin woke up this morning. Maybe Merry was in the kitchen planning what sort of things they might do in all of that snow. It looked very deep from the window of Merry’s bedroom. Merry’s old uncle Albadoc had told everyone last night at supper that it was bound to snow. Old Albadoc could always tell because the cold made his joints ache. He always knew when it was snow weather. Pippin was sorry that Uncle Albadoc would have sore joints, but he was very happy about the snow.

Down in the library Merry and Frodo were studying several old maps that Frodo had brought with him. Merry had a smial full of visiting relations just now. Some of them were staying out the bad weather and others had come for his mum’s birthday which had been a few days before. No one wanted to brave a trip home in all of this and so everywhere one looked, there was a guest. Frodo had come for Merry’s mum’s birthday but he had brought all sorts of lovely maps with him.

Frodo knew how much Merry enjoyed looking at the maps. Frodo enjoyed it also. The two cousins could spend hours studying maps and finding new ways to get to and from various places though neither of them had ever been out of the Shire. "Someday," Merry would say and Frodo would nod in agreement. "Someday we will take a long trip and travel some of these roads that we’ve studied on these maps."

Both cousins were leaning over a large, oak table in the library and tracing roads with their fingers. Their heads were inches apart and their voices barely whispers as they spoke of the maps in almost reverent tones. Their heads were so close together that Frodo’s dark curls brushed against Merry’s blond ones. They had their backs to the door and so they were caught completely off guard when Pippin came racing into the room and called out. "There’s snow, Merry! Did you see?"

"I saw it, Pip," Merry said, not looking up from the map.

Frodo turned and smiled at his younger cousin. "Well, don’t you look a fright this morning, Pip."

"Hullo, Frodo, did you see the snow?" Pippin asked, ignoring the remark about his appearance.

"Yes, I did," Frodo said, looking back at the map. "I suppose that it will be with us for a few days. It’s too cold out for it to melt very much."

Pippin grinned even wider and came over to see what was holding his older cousins’s attention. He couldn’t imagine anyone having anything on their minds today other than snow. Well, maybe breakfast, but other than that, just snow. He reached the side of the table and looked at all of the maps covering it’s surface. A nasty twinge of unease settled into his stomach. Maps!

There was something about maps that Merry dearly loved. Pippin wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew that Merry found maps to be very entertaining. This could be a problem. "What are you looking at?" Pippin asked, tugging on Merry’s sleeve.

"This is a map of the Lonely Mountain and the roads that lead to it," Merry said. "Frodo and I were just plotting a course of travel from the Brandywine Bridge to the Lonely Mountain. We were trying to come up with a different way to reach them other than the way that Bilbo traveled."

"Why?" Pippin asked, wrinkling his nose. "You aren’t going there."

"I might go there some day," Merry said, sounding annoyed.

"But not today because there’s too much snow," Pippin said, brightly.

"No, not today," Frodo laughed. "But it is nice to think about traveling later when Merry is older."

"When Merry is older then won’t you be too old to go, Frodo?" Pippin asked, trying to figure just how old Frodo might be when Merry came of age.

Merry snorted at this and grinned at Frodo. "Yes, cousin, maybe you had better leave soon before you become too old and dotty to travel about."

"Sound advice," Frodo grinned. "Maybe I shall sneak away without you then."

"In the snow?" Pippin asked, wide-eyed.

"No, not in the snow, but maybe before too long," Frodo smiled.

"Not without me," Merry said, looking sternly at Frodo.

"Then I’m going too!" Pippin declared, looking from one cousin to another hopefully.

"If Frodo has to wait for you to grow up then he really will be too old to travel, Pip Squeak," Merry laughed.

Pippin scowled beneath his auburn tangle of curls. "I’m almost as old as you are!"

Merry grinned over at Frodo and the two of them laughed.

"Well I am!" Pippin objected, looking insulted.

"Then why is it that you haven’t done a better job of dressing yourself?" Merry asked, turning from the map and surveying his little cousin with amusement. Pippin’s shirt was buttoned incorrectly and only partly tucked into his breeches and his braces were twisted in the back. His hair was uncombed and he looked as if he’d slept in everything that he was wearing.

Pippin looked down at his buttons and frowned. "Well, I was in a hurry because of the snow, Merry. I can fix it, but it really is good enough as I plan to put a coat on over it when I go out," Pippin explained.

"Yes, well, until then, let’s see if we can untangle your clothing and unsnarl your hair," Merry laughed. "You look frightfully like an abandoned hobbit child." Before Pippin could protest, Merry and Frodo began to redress him, undoing and redoing his buttons and untangling his braces while he fidgeted and complained that he could do it himself.

Finally the two older cousins had managed to make Pippin presentable. Pippin slipped back from them and pretended to re-straighten his shirt a bit. "You two are way too fussy," Pippin declared. "You remind me of Pearl and Nelly. you're always tucking things in and straightening stuff."

Frodo laughed. "I imagine that keeping you sorted out is a full time job for them."

Merry laughed too and Pippin blushed. "I look fine now and I’m ready to go out in the snow."

Merry turned back to the map and said, "Well, have a nice time and stay away from the river."

"Aren’t you coming?" Pippin asked, biting his lower lip.

"I’ll be out later, Pip," Merry said. "Right now, Frodo and I are going to look at these maps for a bit. You go on and play with the other lads."

Frodo was already looking back at the maps again also. "You could look at those later since you won’t be going anywhere until you’re through growing up, Merry. You have plenty of time." Pippin said.

"Not that much really," Merry said. "I am twenty you know."

"Just barely," Pippin said.

"I am still twenty," Merry said. "I have been twenty for nearly a month."

"But, it never snows when I’m here," Pippin said.

"Relax, Pip. Frodo said it won’t melt for several days. We have plenty of time," Merry assured him, still looking at the maps.

"But, Merry," Pippin said, knowing that his cousin was not going to be persuaded but needing to try anyway. "Don’t you want to see it?"

"I’ve seen snow before and I’ll see snow again," Merry said. Frodo didn’t say anything but he watched as Pippin turned and made his way out of the library, head down and hands jammed into his pockets.

Once the child had gone, Frodo turned to Merry. "Do you suppose that we should put this off for a few hours and go outside with him?"

"He’ll be fine, Frodo," Merry said, smiling. "He doesn’t sulk for very long. He’ll go out with some of the other lads from the Hall and I’ll play with him later. We just managed to get all of these maps spread out. It would be a shame to have to put them all away."

"We could leave them here on the table and come back later," Frodo suggested.

"Not all of the children will be out in the snow, Frodo," Merry said. "You’re forgetting that this isn’t Bag End. Anything can happen to these maps if we leave them unattended."

"I suppose you’re right," Frodo agreed. He certainly didn’t want anything to happen to Bilbo’s maps. Now that Bilbo had left the Shire, these maps were all the more treasured. It wasn’t likely that Frodo would ever have a chance to get Bilbo to draw any more maps. No, Merry was right about this at least. The maps should not be left unattended. "I think Pippin may be right. I might be getting too old to travel. I’m not using my hobbit sense. I am ready for a rocker at thirty-four."

They both laughed and returned to the maps.

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Pippin made his way to the entry way and pulled his coat down from the hook. He’d go and have fun without them both! Silly old maps! Why couldn’t Bilbo have taken those things with him? Didn’t Bilbo need them to find his way to where ever it was that he went? Frodo and Merry didn’t need any old maps. They weren’t going anywhere. Only real Tooks left the Shire and Frodo was barely any Took at all and Merry was only half a Took! If anyone would be going anywhere later on, it would be him. He was a real Took.

"Just where do you think you might be off to?" Esmeralda asked coming up behind Pippin.

He turned to see her standing there with her hands on her hips and smiling at him. Now, Merry’s mum was a real Took. She might need a map someday, except he’d never heard of a lass, even a Took lass, traveling out of the Shire. "I’m going out into the snow."

"Not without the proper clothing, Peregrin Took. It’s cold and you’ll catch your death," Esmeralda warned.

"I have my coat," Pippin said, holding it out for her to see. "Why is everyone so fussy about what I’m wearing?"

"Come on and I’ll get you something warm to wear under the coat, and maybe a hat," Esmeralda said.

Pippin followed, still carrying his coat and hoped that she didn’t plan to put too many layers on him. Lasses seemed to think that lads needed far too many clothes in order to keep warm.

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It had taken a while, but Pippin was finally pronounced ready to go out in the snow. His aunt had insisted on a second pair of trousers over his regular ones, two sweaters, his jacket, his scarf, a floppy old hat, and worst of all, mittens! Anyone looking at him would think that he had suddenly put on lots of extra weight! All of the layers were bulky and would, most likely, be in the way, but it did no good to argue with Aunt Esme. She always won. Sometimes you could win with Uncle Doc, but never with Aunt Esme.

Pippin stood out on the front stoop of the Hall and rubbed his nose with one mittened hand while looking across the lawn for other hobbit lads and lasses with which he could play in the snow. His Aunt had told him to stay close to the Hall and away from the river. She had also told him a great many other things but he hadn’t really been listening too closely. Sometimes Merry’s mum rattled on about nothing in particular and so he mostly just listened to the first parts and then ignored the rest.

In the distance, near some of the larger trees, he saw some of the lads near his age making a snow hobbit, but a bit further beyond them, he saw several of Merry’s friends dragging some sticks through the snow and heading off away from the Hall. The little ones would be there all day. He’d see them later. Pippin began to run as fast as he was able to in all of those clothes in the direction of Merry’s friends. He would catch up to them and see what they were doing.

Catching up to Merry’s friends had taken Pippin quite a while and left him nearly out of breath. The older lads had stopped by a wide steam and were discussing something. Puffing and gasping, Pippin joined them and looked up at Falco Boffin. "What you doing?" he asked, between gasps.

"How did you get down here?" Falco asked, leaning on his stick and frowning at Pippin.

"I had to run, but I made it," Pippin said, smiling, cheeks red from the wind beneath his floppy hat.

"Well, you best run on back up to that Hall before you get yourself into trouble," Falco said.

Pippin frowned at him stubbornly. "I can be here if I want."

"Where’s Merry?’ Fredegar asked, leaning down and looking at Pippin.

"He’s with Frodo.  They're looking at maps," Pippin said disgustedly.

"Who is watching you?" Fredegar asked.

"I can watch my own self," Pippin said, wiping his nose with a mitten. "I’m allowed."

"Who let you out?" Falco asked.

"Aunt Esme," Pippin chirped. "She knows where I am."

"She knows that you are down here by the pond with us?" Fredegar asked, doubting this.

"She knows I’m out and she said that I could come out and so there," Pippin said, folding his arms over his chest and standing as tall as he was able to.

"Good for her," Falco groaned.

"What are you going to do with those sticks?" Pippin asked.

"Swat little hobbit lads that won’t go away," Berilac answered waving his stick at Pippin. Berilac was Merry’s older cousin and sometimes he could be rather mean to Pippin.  All the same, Pippin was determined to find out what the older lads were doing and so he stood his ground and hoped that Fredegar wouldn’t let Berilac swat him with any sticks. Fredegar was usually nice.

"What are you really going to do?’ Pippin asked, ignoring Berilac and looking over at Falco.

"We're going to play Sliders here on the pond," Falco said, seeing no harm in telling the little Took what they were doing. They weren’t up to mischief.  They were allowed to play on the pond when it was frozen solid. It wasn’t dangerous like the river was. The Brandywine almost never froze over and even when it did, it didn’t freeze solid. This little pond that was fed by the river was only about two feet deep in the middle and even less near the shore. Even if the ice did crack there was no danger. You might get wet, cold, feet, but that was about it.

"What’s Sliders?" Pippin asked curiously.

"You don’t know what Sliders is?" Berilac asked, laughing. "Everyone knows about Sliders."

"Pippin probably doesn’t Berilac," Falco said. "He’s a Took and they don’t go about the water even when it's frozen over."

Pippin looked at the top of the little pond. He had waded in it many times. He remembered being in it this past summer with Merry. It really was frozen. He’d never seen a frozen pond before. This was great! "How do you play Sliders?"

"Forget it, Pip Squeak," Berilac said, gruffly. "You’re too little to play and you don’t even know the rules."

"I can play if you teach me the rules," Pippin said. ‘I’m good at games." He knew this part was a lie. He was dreadful at games, but he enjoyed them. Besides, who knew? He might be good at this game whatever it was.

"Sorry Pip, but Berilac is right," Fredegar said, leaning down to look at Pippin again. "You’re too small to play. We don’t have a stick that’s your size."

"How do you play then?" Pippin asked ignoring the comment about his size.

"You wrap your feet in this burlap, tie it and then you slide out onto the ice with your stick," Harley Brandybuck said. "You have two teams and one slider."

Pippin frowned, "What’s a slider?"

Harley held out a small wooden disk for Pippin to inspect. Harley was two years younger than Merry and he was very nice. Pippin liked him.  Harley always talked to Pippin as if he were one of the older lads. "What do you do with it?" Pippin asked pointing to the wooden disk.

"Well, you knock it around on the ice with your stick and try to get it to go into a basket," Harley said. Pippin noticed that Falco had a wicker basket in his hand. " The team that manages to knock the slider into the basket the most times is the winner."

"I bet it’s fun," Pippin said. This sounded like a very exciting game to him and he really wanted to try it.

Harley had dropped to the ground and was wrapping his feet in burlap while he talked to Pippin. Pippin noticed that Falco already had burlap on his feet and he was sliding out onto the icy pond with the basket in his hands. "Harley, why do you have to put that old burlap on your feet? Doesn’t it itch?"

"No, not really," Harley said. "If you don’t put it on your feet then you don’t slide as well. The bottom of a hobbit foot is too rough to slide properly on the ice. This stuff helps you slide better is all."

"I want to try," Pippin said.

"I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Pippin," Fredegar said. "You’ve never done this before and you might get hurt."

"You’re too little to play Sliders, and Tooks don’t play Sliders," Berilac said, taking his stick and walking to the ice.

"Tooks could play if they wanted to," Pippin yelled after him. Then he turned to Fredegar and Harley. "Please let me try to Slide. You don’t have to let me play, but please let me try the sliding part."

"It won’t hurt to let him try and slide will it?" Harley asked Fredegar. "We can’t start a real game until more of the lads come down from the Hall."

Pippin looked at Fredegar anxiously, "Please?"

"Well, I don’t suppose it’ll hurt anything, but you have to listen to what we tell you," Fredegar said. He handed Pippin some of the burlap and said, "You have to tie this around your feet first."

Pippin took the burlap and sat down in the snow to wrap his feet. The mittens made his hands clumsy though and he was unable to tie the burlap onto his feet. He pulled at the mittens but discovered that he was unable to remove them because his Aunt Esme had tied their strings around his wrists to secure them onto his hands. Pippin had a bad habit of losing mittens. He would put them on to go out into the cold and then the first chance that he got he would remove them. Esmeralda Brandybuck had started tying them onto his hands in order to avoid this. Pippin hated to ask for help with the burlap but he had no choice. Aunt Esme was far too clever and sometimes it was very annoying.

Laughing at Pippin’s situation, but refusing to remove the hated mittens from the little hobbit’s hands, Falco agreed to tie the burlap onto Pippin’‘s feet. Pippin sat with his head down in embarrassment and watched Falco tie the burlap on. The older lads didn’t have on mittens. They had gloves without fingers in them and so they had no trouble tying things. It wasn’t fair.

Once Pippin’s feet were laced into the burlap, he made his way over to the edge of the pond, clumsily. "This is hard to walk in," he admitted to Harley who was standing just out on the ice.

"It is hard to walk in the snow, but it makes it very easy to slide on the ice," Harley said. He and the others chuckled as Pippin made his way to the pond.

"Now, Pippin," Fredegar said. "You have to be careful and take it slow at first. It’s very hard to keep your balance when you are first learning to do this."

Pippin nodded and then asked, "Do I just step out onto the ice?"

"Here," Fredegar said. "Let me hold your hands for a minute and let you get used to the ice. Then I’ll let you go and you can try it on your own, all right?"

Pippin smiled and nodded. He reached over and took Fredegar’s hands and stepped out onto the ice. All at once he could feel his feet sliding. One was going one way and the other was going the other way. Chuckling, Fredegar helped to steady Pippin while he positioned his feet. ‘This is a bit hard," Pippin admitted.

"That’s why you have to go slow and be careful," Fredegar said. He gently guided Pippin out onto the icy pond.

Pippin watched his own feet as they slid across the ice. Fredegar was pulling him and it was fun. He’d never felt anything like this before. With Fredegar holding his hands, it was easy. "Now, I’m going to let go and you have to try and keep your balance, Pip," Fredergar said. "Do you think you can manage that?"

"I think so," Pippin said, though he wasn’t sure.

Fredegar let go of Pippin’s hands and slowly backed away to give Pippin room to try and slide. The older lads, all still waiting on more players for the game, watched as Pippin moved one foot forward and managed to slide a few inches. Thrilled with this, Pippin looked up at Fredegar and crowed, "I’m sliding!" Suddenly he was sitting on his backside on the ice and the older lads were laughing.

"Not bad for a first try," Fredegar said, as Pippin sat there trying to figure out what went wrong. He made to stand and felt his feet slip out from under him. He tried to push with his hands and feet together but the mittens slid worse than the burlap and he sat down again.

He made several more tries with Fredegar encouraging him but simply couldn’t get to his feet. "How do I get up?" Pippin asked, frustrated.

"You don’t seem to be getting up," Berilac laughed not bothering to hide his amusement.

Fredegar reached over and helped Pippin to his feet. "Still want to try this?"

Pippin nodded, "I can do it. I want to try it again." And he did. He tried it again and again and every time he fell, someone had to help him up. He didn’t have any way to get to his feet thanks to his tricky Aunt Esme’s mittens. His backside was cold and sore but he was determined not to give up. After all, Berilac had said that Tooks couldn’t slide. He had to prove him wrong for the honour of all Tooks, didn’t he?

Each time Pippin fell, one of the older lads would haul him back to his feet as they passed. Pippin could managed a few small sliding steps before falling. The trouble was that when he fell he had to wait to get someone’s attention so that they could help him up. Darn mittens! Sometimes he had to sit on the ice and yell for as long as ten minutes before any of the older lads took notice of him. He was beginning to be grateful for the second pair of trousers that his Aunt had made him wear.

Finally, just as Pippin seemed to be getting the hang of things, the rest of the game’s players showed up and Fredegar came over and picked Pippin up and sat him off of the ice. "Now, this game gets rather rough and so you have to stay out of the way, Pippin, " Fredegar said. "You can sit here and watch us play if you want to but you have to stay off of the ice."

"But I was just starting to get better at it," Pippin objected. He had been improving just lately and he hated to give up now. He had hoped to get so good that by the time the game started someone might suggested that they let him play. That hadn’t happened but if he could practice a bit more then it might happen.

"Sorry Pip Squeak, but it isn’t safe," Fredegar said, patting him on top of his head. His hat had come off a while ago and he wasn’t sure where it was now.

"I can just stay on the edges," Pippin said.

"No, now there’s no one that will be here to help you up and if the game gets rough then we might accidentally hurt you. Now, stay off of this pond or I’ll take you up to the Hall and give you to my Aunt Jewel."

"She smells funny and she makes me nervous," Pippin objected.

"I know that. She makes me nervous too," Fredegar said. "Now, do what I say or you’ll spend the rest of the day with Aunt Jewel."

Fredegar turned and slid out onto the ice to join the teams. Insulted that he wasn’t allowed to play, but still interested in how the game was actually played, Pippin sat down in the snow to watch.

The game was very exciting and Berilacswas particularly good though Pippin would never tell him that. Fredegar was pretty good too and some of the lads that had come down late were extra good. Pippin enjoyed watching the game for a while but soon wanted to try sliding again. After all, if he didn’t get good at it, the older lads would never allow him to play. He needed to practice. The trouble was if he practiced here on the end of the pond, then Fredegar would see him.

He truly was afraid of Fredegar’s Aunt Jewel. The old hobbit smelled like cooked cabbage which was fine if you were a cabbage, but Fredegar’s Aunt Jewel was not a cabbage. She had a very large nose with a wart beside of it and she had squinty little eyes. She talked very loudly and she couldn’t hear you when you talked back unless you said something rude to her. She always heard the rude things. Also, she had a walking stick and if she did think you’d been rude, she would rap you on the head with it. No, Pippin didn’t want to spend any time with Fredegar’s Aunt Jewel.

There had to be other places that were frozen and that he could practice his sliding on.

Merry and Frodo had enjoyed a morning of map reading and adventure planning in the warm library and were now having elevensese. "What do you think, Merry?" Frodo asked. ‘Do you think that we should put the maps away for a while and find Pippin?"

"I think we’d better," Merry grinned. "He’s probably bored with the other little lads by now and looking for something to get into. If we hurry, then maybe we can keep him out of trouble."

Frodo laughed. "He is an adventurous little hobbit isn’t he?"

Merry nodded. "Too adventurous for his own good most of the time." Merry frowned. "I guess I disappointed him today by not going out in the snow with him first thing. Sometimes I forget how excited he gets about things."

"He is still only a little lad, " Frodo smiled. "Twelve-year-olds get all excited about lots of things that we wouldn’t find that interesting anymore. I suppose that we did find them interesting when we were his age, though."

"I still like snow," Merry admitted, hoping that Frodo wouldn’t think he was being childish.

"So do I," Frodo agreed, though if he had been completely truthful, he would have had to admit that he preferred a good book and a warm fire.

"Then I suppose we should go out and play, er, go out in the snow with Pippin for a while," Merry said. He still enjoyed playing in the snow almost as much as Pippin did but Frodo didn’t need to know that.

The two cousins got their warm sweaters and their coats and went out to look for Pippin.

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Pippin was in a bit of a fix just now. He had decided to leave the pond and go up the little stream that ran into it far enough so that Fredegar and the others wouldn’t see him. The little stream was also frozen over and so he could practice on it for a while. When he got really good, then he would come sliding up the little stream and out onto the pond and surprise the older lads.

The little stream wasn’t the Brandywine even though it did come down to the pond from the Brandywine. He wasn’t on the river and so he wouldn’t be breaking the one rule that he’d heard his Aunt Esme give him before she sent him out to play. He trudged through the snow in the rather awkward burlap wrappings on his feet until he reached a likely spot on the stream. He tested it with his hand before going out on it just to make sure it was really frozen like the pond and it was.

He stood up and eased out onto its surface and began to slowly practice his sliding. He could hear the sound of the older lads sticks smacking against each other and against the ice so he knew that he hadn’t gone too far away. At first it seemed that he had finally figured out how this was supposed to be done. The better he got, the braver he became. He began to try to move a bit faster like he’d seen the older lads do. If he was going to play their game then he had to be able to keep up with them. That would mean learning to be faster.

He had built up a bit of speed and was gliding on the stream feeling very proud of himself, when he noticed that the stream seemed to slant downward a bit. In fact, part of the reason that he was going this fast was because he was going down hill. Suddenly he became nervous of the speed with which he was moving and began to try and pull toward the edge of the stream, but he was moving too fast to manage this. As the panic set in, he lost his balance and fell to the ice, but he continued to slide.

Pippin frantically clawed at the ice with his mittens but was helpless to stop himself. Fearing the worst, he closed his eyes and yelled out at the top of his voice.

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"Frodo, why don't you and Mery get some of that burlap and join us," Falco called out from the ice. "We could use two more players."

Frodo laughed. "I haven’t played Sliders in years, Falco. I wouldn’t be any help to you."

"Well, I know you’re pretty good, Merry," Falco said, slightly disappointed that Frodo wasn't going to play.  He had heard that Frodo was very good indeed. "Want to give it a try. How about it, are you in the mood for a game?"

"I am better than pretty good, Falco," Merry bragged as Frodo rolled his eyes. "But I need to find the PipSqueak just now."

"I knew that no one had given that child permission to follow us down here!" Berilac said, sliding to the edge of the pond and looking at Merry.

"Pip was here?" Merry frowned.

"Well, he was sitting over there watching us play only a few minutes ago," Fredegar said. "He wanted to play, the little rascal, but I threatened him with a visit to Aunt Jewel and he saw reason."

Merry scanned the area around them and frowned. "Freddy, Pip almost never sees reason."

"He was kind of funny really, " Harley said. "He wanted to try sliding and so we let him. He spent most of the morning on his backside on the ice, but the stubborn little Took wouldn’t give up."

"Yes, and those mittens didn’t help matters either, but I am not going up against your mum on anything and so I refused to take the mittens off of him, " Falco laughed. "She tied them on."

"If she doesn’t then Pippin takes them off and freezes to death rather than wear them," Merry said, still looking around. "He also hides them. Somewhere in Buckland there are several hundred pairs of perfectly good mittens."

"So, where do you suppose he went?" Frodo asked.

"Probably got bored and went back up to the Hall to get warm," Falco said. "He slides pretty good for a first-timer, not to mention a Took."

Just then a very faint yell caught their ears and Merry felt the inside of his stomach churning. "Back to the Hall, my arse!" He and Frodo began to run toward the sound of the yell followed by the others.

"Which way?" Fredegar asked, when the yelling stopped.

"Along the side of the stream," Merry declared, not stopping to explain how he knew this. He just knew Pippin and he suspected that his little cousin had gone off to try to slide on his own. The stream would be a likely place.

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Pippin had come to a stop somewhere. He built up his nerve and opened his eyes. All he could see was ice everywhere. He raised his head slowly afraid to make any sudden moves, and saw the bank far off in the distance. Where he lay was too wide to be a part of the stream. He looked and saw where the stream had come out of the bank and onto, onto, "Help!" He yelled wildly trying to stand and falling flat on his stomach. He was out in the middle of the Brandywine River.

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The yelling had started again, making it easier to track Pippin and the older boys found themselves nearing the river. Merry’s heart was in his throat now. Oh, please don’t let Pip have fallen into the Brandywine. The cold water would likely kill the child. Anyone could drown in icy water, even the most experienced swimmer. Pippin, could swim but was still not a very strong swimmer.

Frodo reached the bank first and caught sight of Pippin struggling to get up and falling back to the ice. Blessedly, the part of the river that Pippin was on was frozen. Unfortunately, there was a melted patch of river water peeking through the ice a few feet behind Pippin and about twelve or so feet to the little hobbit’s right the river flowed, unfrozen. Frodo knew that there was no way to tell just how thick or how solid the ice was.

"Pippin! Lay very still!" Merry yelled from just behind Frodo.

"I’m scared, Merry!" Pippin yelled back in a very high, shaky voice.

"It’s alright, Pip, just don’t move," Merry yelled back, calmer than he felt. "We’ll get you."

"How?" Fredegar asked, before he could stop himself.

"I’m going after him," Merry said, determinedly.

"Wait a minute, Merry," Frodo objected. "You can’t just walk out there. That ice is holding Pippin, but it might not hold you."

"We have to get him out of there, Frodo," Merry said, the panic in his own voice was evident.

Out on the ice, Pippin was starting to cry, softly. What if he fell through the ice? Berilac was right. Tooks didn’t slide. He wanted out of here and back on the shore. He shivered and told him self over and over again, "Merry will get me. Merry will get me." He began to repeat it over and over softly to calm himself down.

"Go to the boat house and get a rope, Harley," Merry ordered. "We can tie a rope around me and I can walk out there and get him."

Harley took off running through the snow in the direction of the boat house, which thankfully was not on the wrong side of the stream. Now it was Frodo who was giving orders. "Falco, you and Berilac go up and try to drag a boat down here. It the ice breaks, we’ll need it."

As the others went off to get the rope and the boat, Merry started to move toward the edge of the shore closest to Pippin’s position on the ice. He could see his little cousin’s mouth moving but was unable to hear what he was saying. The small mitten-covered hands lay flat in front of him on the ice and his feet which were still wrapped in the burlap, were stretched out behind him.

"Wait for the rope, Meriadoc," Frodo said, sternly. "Remember, the ice will hold Pippin, but you are a very big lad." He watched his cousin nervously knowing that at any moment, Merry was liable to start across the ice toward Pippin.

"Merry, hurry, please," Pippin wailed.

"I’m coming in just a minute Pip. You just keep laying perfectly still and wait for me," Merry instructed.

"Merry?"

"I mean it, Pip," Merry said sternly as Harley ran up beside of Merry with the rope.

Merry tied the rope around his waist and handed the long coil to Harley and Frodo. "Now, walk slowly, Merry and listen for any sound that might be the ice cracking," Frodo said. "Do not rush this. Pippin is fine where he is right now. Go slow or you’ll put both of you into the Brandywine." He shivered as he said this last. He knew very well that not everyone came out of the Brandywine alive. He pushed the thought aside and held fast to the rope along with Harley as Merry made his way slowly out onto the ice.

Pippin raised his head and opened his eyes. He could see Merry inching away from the bank. He could see Frodo and Harley on the bank holding onto something. Frantic to get to Merry and to safety, Pippin began to try to move himself forward but the hated mittens and the burlap on his feet refused to give him any traction at all and he simply slid helplessly in the same spot.

"Pippin lay still!" Merry shouted, and he stopped to listen for any cracking sounds. "If you keep that up, you’ll put us both in the river!"

Pippin stopped and lay still, breathing hard from his efforts. Little white puffs of smoke came out of his mouth and nose and he began to be very cold. He was laying on ice and had been for a while now. "Let Merry hurry, please," Pippin murmured to no one in particular.

Frodo let out a breath of air. He’d been holding his breath for Merry since his cousin had started out onto the frozen river. Behind him, Falco and Berilac dragged a row boat to a stop at the edge of the river. Fredegar lay a hand on Frodo’s shoulder in support. "Don’t worry, Merry knows what he’s doing."

Frodo gave a small bark of a laugh. Merry would do whatever it took to get to Pippin. He might not have any idea of what he was doing, but he would risk everything to reach Pippin. Frodo watched Merry inch out further onto the river and knew that if the ice broke now, they would have to be quick in hauling Merry in and getting him warm or he would freeze to death. He didn’t like to think what would happen to Pippin if the ice broke. There was no rope around Pippin just now. The little hobbit was on his own out there on the frozen river.

Slowly but surely, Merry managed to get within a few feet of Pippin. He could tell that the ice was thinner here and he would need to be very careful. If Pippin panicked and flung himself at Merry their combined weight might break the ice. He had to stop before he reached Pippin and explain this to him. He only hoped that Pippin wasn’t too frightened to take instructions.

"Pippin, I need you to listen to me," Merry said.

Pippin looked up, "Merry you’re almost here. Please come and get me. I’m cold."

"I know, but you have to listen to me for a minute first," Merry said.

"I just want to go back to Aunt Esme, Merry," Pippin said.

"Peregrin Took, unless you want us both to fall in this cold water and freeze to death, you will listen to me right now," Merry said, sternly and loud enough so that he could be heard on the bank.

Pippin gulped and nodded, "I-I-I’ll listen, Merry. I don’t want us to freeze."

"That’s my lad, now listen carefully Pip," Merry said, feeling guilty for scaring the child, but relieved that it had worked. "I am going to lay down on this ice and inch my way to you. When I can reach your hands, I am going to take hold of them. I don’t want you to do anything except hold on tight to my hands. Don’t try to move toward me or try to pull or anything. Just hold on tighter than you’ve ever held on before, do you hear me?"

"I do, Merry, but these mittens are slippery," Pippin said.

"Can you take them off?" Merry asked.

"No, Aunt Esme tied them cause I won’t keep them on if she doesn’t," Pippin said. Merry had known this but with all of this tension he had forgotten it.

"Don’t worry, Pip. I can hold on tight for both of us. You just lay still and do what I’ve told you to, alright?"

"Alright, Merry," Pippin said, softly.

Merry yelled back to Frodo. "When I have Pippin’s hands, I will yell for you all to pull, Frodo. Then I am just going to hold onto him while you pull us to shore."

"Go ahead, Merry," Frodo yelled back. "We can do that." He desperately hoped that they could.

Merry stretched out on the ice and inched his way toward Pippin. The two of them locked eyes and Merry continued to speak to his little cousin in a soft, reassuring voice, "Just lay still and look at me, Pip. Just wait and I will be there any minute now." After what seemed like forever to everyone, Merry’s hands clamped firmly around Pippin’s mittens and the child sighed, releasing a shaky breath.

Merry pulled Pippin forward slightly and managed to get a firm grip on Pippin’s wrists which were easier to hold than the mittens. He took a deep breath and yelled back to Frodo. "Pull! I’ve got him!"

"Easy now, take it slow and just pull a little at a time," Frodo instructed the others. It was very hard not to jerk the rope as fast as it would come, but they had to be very careful now.

Pippin wanted desperately to move his feet and arms and pull himself over to Merry but he didn’t dare. Merry had said that they would both freeze to death and so he had to be very good, but he was so very frightened.

"You are doing just fine, Pip," Merry said, and even smiled to reassure his little cousin. "You are being very brave and it’s going to be just fine in a few minutes. Frodo is pulling us to shore. Frodo won’t let us down, Pip."

After what seemed like hours but was really only about thirty minutes total, Frodo, Fredegar and Falco, helped Merry drag a very frightened Pippin up onto the bank. Pippin climbed right into Merry’s arms and wrapped his own around Merry’s neck tightly. He buried his face in Merry’s shoulder and cried softy. Merry held him and rubbed his back and kissed his curls all the while fussing at him. "I should hang you from the first tree I find, Peregrin Took. Of all the dangerous stunts that you’ve pulled in your very short life this is the worst. No one would blame me if I never spoke to you again."

"I’m sorry, Merry. I promise I won’t do it again!" Pippin sniffled.

"Well, I should hope not," Merry said, allowing Frodo and Freddy to help him to his feet with Pippin still clinging to him like a wet shirt.

"Please don’t not talk to me, Merry, please?" Pippin whimpered.

"Don’t worry, Pip," Merry said, gently. "I could never do that to you. You are a powerful lot of trouble, but you’re mine."

Pippin cried himself to sleep in Merry’s arms on the way back to the Hall. Everyone offered, but Merry refused to let anyone else carry the child.

The End