This one was written at the request of 'pathvain aelien' who wanted to know how Pippin got his stuffed rabbit, Errol. Errol appears in the story "Merry's Doorway" and in another story which I plan to post to "Brandybuck and Took" in a few days. Anyway, you don't have to read any of the others in order to read this one. This is ten-year-old Merry, nearly two-year-old Pippin and twenty-four-year-old Frodo in Buckland. Hope you enjoy it.

"The Perfect Gift"

“What does he want?” Frodo frowned, bouncing the small child on his knee and watching as the little one kept looking back toward that other room and frowning. The child was making grunting noises and struggling to be let down.

“How should I know?” Merry sighed. “Maybe he knows that all of the food will be in there in a few minutes.”

Frodo laughed. “That is probably it, Merry-lad. Even though he’s a bit too young for some of it, I am sure that this little handful will be more than willing to eat his share of it once the meal is on the table.” Frodo looked down into the small face of his captive and smiled. “Are you hungry, Peregrin?”

The little one fidgeted and opened his mouth and said, “Bah, wah, gah!” Peregrin then stared intently at Frodo as if he expected a response to this gibberish. When Frodo only continued to smile, Peregrin struggled harder setting the tiny bells on his trousers to jingling and yelled out, “Roh! Roh!”

Ten-year-old Merry snickered. “Whatever he wants I don’t think that you are doing it because he doesn’t look happy.”

“Well, you’re no help in all of this,” Frodo said. “I haven’t been around this tiny one very much but I know that he has spent a great deal of time here at the Hall. Why is it that you don’t know what he wants?”

“Because, I don’t really care what he wants,” Merry sighed. “Why did you say you’d watch him anyway? We could be doing something if you hadn’t taken him.” Merry frowned at him while the baby continued to struggle and whimper.

“Dow, dow, ow, gi,” Peregrin chirped.

“I offered because your mum was busy with the meal,” Frodo said. “And I haven’t spent much time with little Peregrin. I thought it might be nice to get acquainted.”

“Yes, well, I can see how that’s going,” Merry sulked.

Frodo sighed and stood up with the baby in his arms and peered intently at the small angry face. “What do you want?” he asked, in desperation.

The child’s lower lip trembled and his small green eyes stared back at Frodo. “MY!” he blurted waving his tiny fist in the air and leaning away from Frodo.

“Maybe he needs changed,” Merry suggested, half-heartedly. “If he does, then I am not helping. I didn’t say that I would watch him. You did and so if he’s done that, then you will have to take care of it.” Merry folded his arms over his chest and looked up at his favorite cousin.

“It isn’t that,” Frodo said. “He doesn’t seem to have done anything of that nature.” He patted the child on the rump and smiled at him. “He wants something, though and I’ve no idea what it is.”

“Bugh! My!” Peregrin yelled out and smacked Frodo on the side of the face making Merry giggle.

“It isn’t funny,” Frodo objected. “It must be frustrating for the little child not to be able to make anyone understand what he wants.” Frodo said, taking the child’s hand in his to avoid another smack.

“Then he should learn to talk,” Merry said.

Peregrin leaned sideways in Frodo’s arms and looked at Merry and yelled, “Ro! MY!”

Merry glared at the child and said, firmly, “Behave! No one is getting you anything!”

Peregrin’s lower lip trembled and then he scrunched up his face and whined, “Meeeee!”

“That hardly helped, Merry,” Frodo sighed.

Walking past them with a mug of ale in one hand and a grin on his face, Bilbo said, “Walk him back and forth and bounce him a bit. Babies love that sort of nonsense.”

Before Frodo could suggest that Bilbo take the child since he knew what babies liked, Bilbo disappeared around the corner. With a long-suffering sigh, Frodo began to pace back and forth and bounce the child who jingled with each motion, in the hope that Bilbo was right. Merry fell in step beside of him and watched the baby to see what would happen. Meanwhile, the baby continued to struggle and twist making it very hard for Frodo to hang onto him. “He’s strong for a tiny baby isn’t he?” Frodo said, annoyed.

Merry smirked. “He’s spoilt. If he opens his mouth then someone does something for him. They’re all entirely too nice to him. You aren’t getting what he wants and so he’s acting up.”

“If I knew what he wanted then I would gladly get it,” Frodo said. “I am tired of wrestling with him.”

“Next time, instead of offering to take him, maybe you’ll do something with me,” Merry said, smugly.

“R0! EEEEEEEEEEE!” Peregrin squealed and nearly managed to fling himself out of Frodo’s arms as he reached in the direction of the dining area.

“Now, you have to stop that, Peregrin,” Frodo sighed. “Come on, Merry,” he continued, looking down at his younger cousin’s amused face. “Let’s walk him into the dining room and maybe he will settle down a bit.”

“See?” Merry said. “He always gets what he wants.” He grudgingly followed Frodo.

As they reached the dining room Peregrin began to giggle and wave his arms. His entire face was glowing now and his eyes sparkled. “Ero!” he shouted, joyfully.

“I’m glad to have that settled,” Frodo said, still having trouble holding onto the wiggling child.

Merry snorted. “He’s spoilt!” he declared. “You’d think it was his birthday and not Aunt Geranium’s.”

“I suspect that he doesn’t know that it’s anyone birthday at all, Merry,” Frodo smiled. “He’s too little to understand much.”

“He understands what makes folks do what it is that he wants them to do,” Merry said, arching an eyebrow at the baby. “I think he knows stuff even if he can’t say much.”

It was Frodo’s turn to snicker. “You do, do you? So you think that this tiny imp is plotting something, do you?”

“Laugh if you want, but I’ve watched him,” Merry said. “He knows stuff. He’s annoying, but he’s clever.”

As Merry made this pronouncement, Peregrin stuck one finger up his own nose and gurgled.

“He’s a regular genius,” Frodo said, grinning.

“He does stuff like that just to fool you,” Merry said, glaring at the baby. “I’m on to him and I have been since the first time you made me hold him. I knew then that he was trouble.”

“Well, he seems just fine now,” Frodo smiled, grinning at the baby.

Just then, Peregrin began to wave his arms about and struggle again. The tiny bells on his trousers were jingling like mad now. He seemed to be trying to climb over Frodo’s shoulder. “EEEE! Roh! MY!”

Merry laughed. “I warned you, but no one listens to me about anything,” Merry said.

Frustrated, Frodo turned to look behind him to see what the child might be trying to reach and as he did so, Peregrin screamed.

“What?” Frodo asked, the annoyance plain in his voice. “What do you want?”

“E-roh!” Peregrin crowed, waving at a chair in the corner of the room.

Frodo looked at the chair and frowned. Someone had tossed a coat over the arm of the chair. There was a bag of hard candy sitting beside of the chair leg, a box with handkerchiefs inside of it lay on the chair, an umbrella leaned against it, a paper hat that Bilbo had made for one of the little lasses sat on the chair, and something that was still wrapped in gift paper sat next to it. It looked as if the package might have been opened earlier but now it was covered up by paper and tossed aside. Under the edge of the chair was a large red ball. “Get that ball, Merry,” Frodo said, hopefully. “That looks like something that he might like.”

Sighing as if he’d been asked to move all of the furniture in the room, Merry walked over and retrieved the ball. “Here, but he won’t like it,” Merry said as he handed the ball to Frodo.

“Of course he will,” Frodo said. “Little ones love balls.”

“That one doesn’t,” Merry said, knowingly and sure enough, Peregrin began to pull away and whimper as Frodo held up the ball.

“Peregrin, don’t you like the ball?” Frodo asked. “Look it bounces!” He dropped it to the floor and let it bounce back up into his hand and Peregrin buried his face in Frodo’s shoulder and whined. Frodo let the ball drop and kicked it gently underneath the chair where it had been and looked questioningly at Merry. “Why doesn’t he like balls?”

“I was tossing one in the parlor the other day and I may have hit him in the head with it once or twice,” Merry said in an off-hand manner. “It was only a little tap on the head, but now he doesn’t like balls very much.”

Frodo glared at him. “You could have mentioned that, you know.”

“I told you he wouldn’t like it, but you didn’t listen,” Merry said.

“So you did,” Frodo admitted as Peregrin looked up and reached for the chair and yelled again.

“Well, Meriadoc, you’re the expert,” Frodo said. “What would your guess be? Oh, and before you begin, I am not giving him the umbrella!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,” Peregrin yelled, reaching for the chair.

“He might want the candy, but he’s too little for it,” Merry said, thoughtfully. “Mum says I can’t give him hard candy because he’d choke on it.”

“Well, it can’t be the handkerchiefs,” Frodo said.

“He wants my gift!” Merry said, looking at the baby accusingly. “He wants the present that Aunt Geri gave me!”

“Your gift?” Frodo frowned, looking back at the half wrapped package on the chair.

“He squealed when I opened it before,” Merry growled. “It was mine and she gave him a gift but now he wants mine too!”

“What is it?’ Frodo asked. “I believe that I was outside having a pipe with Bilbo when she gave out the children’s gifts.”

“EEEE!” Peregrin said, squirming.

“It’s nothing much, but it is mine and so he can’t have it,” Merry said, fiercely. He folded his arms over his chest and stared sternly at the baby.

Peregrin leaned against Frodo’s shoulder and sniffled. Frodo stroked the little one’s soft curls and looked at Merry. “I understand,” Frodo said. ‘It is your gift from Aunt Geri and it is probably too grown up for Peregrin anyway.”

Merry fidgeted and looked at the floor, taking one of his toes and moving it in a circle. “She did mean it for me,” he muttered.

“Of course she did,” Frodo agreed. “This little one has to learn that not everything here belongs to him. You may be right about that spoiling thing, you know. Adults do tend to go all soft in the head around babies.”

Merry gave a quick glance at the chair and then mumbled, “I didn’t exactly like it anyway.”

“What’s that, Merry?” Frodo asked, not sure he’d heard correctly.

“Well, it’s just that she’s rather old and a bit muddled at times and I don’t think she remembered how old I am when she bought it,” Merry said, looking at the baby now. “I mean, I am too old for it. I’m ten now and it isn’t a proper gift for a lad my age but mum pulled my ear and made me say thank you all the same as if I really liked it. Then Berilac and the others laughed at me and made fun.”

Frodo frowned. “I suppose that she doesn’t realize how grown up you are,” he said. “But I am very sure that she didn’t mean any harm. Your mum was right to insist that you be polite about it, whatever it was.” Frodo glanced over at the package wondering what it might contain.

“Ra! Er! Mymymymymy!” Peregrin said, reaching for the chair again.

“Determined, aren’t you?” Frodo sighed. “Well, it isn’t yours and you are just going to have to accept that, my little lad.” Frodo tweaked the child’s pointed nose and then looked at Merry. “What did she give him?”

“That ball,” Merry sighed, looking underneath the chair. “He screamed and cried so that Pearl had to take him out of the room after that.”

“I see,” Frodo said, trying not to laugh. “So Aunt Geranium thinks that ball is a proper gift for a two-year-old-“

“He’s not two yet,” Merry corrected.

“Right,” Frodo said. “I can see, now that you’ve told me your story about that ball hitting him in the head, why he didn’t want this one. I guess there would have been no way for Aunt Geri to know that at the time she selected his gift.”

“She’s not terribly good at picking out gifts,” Merry said, stiffly. “Mine was all wrong as well.” He glared over at the package. “Berilac will tease me all week about that gift.”

“May I know what it is?” Frodo ask gently.

Merry looked down and mumbled something.

“What did you say?” Frodo asked, gently.

“It’s an old stuff toy like you’d expect a baby to have,” Merry said, embarrassed.

“I see,” Frodo said. “That explains why Peregrin wants it and it also explains why you don’t.”

“It also explains why I am going to be teased,” Merry growled.

“Mymymymymy!” Peregrin howled and reached for the chair.

“Oh, all right!” Merry said, crossly. He stalked over to the chair and retrieved the package as Frodo sat down on the floor with the child sitting in front of him. Peregrin continued to squirm and reach for the chair and so Frodo had to hold on to him. The little one could crawl if he were given the chance. Frodo had seen him do it and the little hobbit was quite fast.

Merry returned with the package and laid it in front of Peregrin and said, “It’s a baby toy anyhow and you are a baby so I suppose that you can have it.”

Peregrin looked at Merry intently and crowed, “Meee! Mymymy!”

“Yes, it’s yours now,” Merry answered him, pushing the package toward the child.

Peregrin worked with the paper clumsily, tearing bits of it off and tossing them behind him so that they landed on Frodo while Merry smirked. The little child’s face was very serious as he tried to get the package open. After a few minutes, Merry sighed and reached over to help. “Do I have to do everything for you?” he asked, as Peregrin sat up and left the unwrapping to Merry, smacking his hands together and cooing.

“Here,” Merry said, finally and he held out a very large, stuffed, grey, rabbit with black button eyes and floppy ears.

Peregrin bounced on his rump on the floor and held out his arms with excitement. “Mymymymymy!” He wrapped his arms tightly about the rabbit and rubbed his nose on its fur. “E-rol!” he crowed. “Mymymymymy!”

Merry rolled his eyes and then said, “Now I’m spoiling him too!”

“I have an idea,” Frodo smiled. “But you will have to keep an eye on Peregrin for a few minutes if it is to work.”

Merry sighed. “What are you going to do?” he asked, as Frodo slid the little hobbit over so that Merry could hold onto him.

“I may have a way to fix everything if you’ll give me about ten minutes, Merry,” Frodo said.

Merry looked at the little child who was hugging the rabbit and cooing into its fur. “Well, all right, but if he does anything messy while you’re away, I am saving it for you,” Merry said, putting the child on his lap.

Frodo grinned. "That is fair enough." He then left the room.

_________________________________________________________________

Frodo hadn’t returned until it was time for the birthday lunch, but Merry hadn’t minded because Peregrin had gone off to sleep holding the rabbit in his arms and had not made any mess or been any trouble. Merry’s mum had taken the baby and put him in a crib near the table along with the rabbit and everyone had been seated at the table. Across from Merry, Berilac hissed, “Where’s your bunny, Merry?”

Merry had glared at him and whispered back, “ How would you like it if I stuffed that bunny down your throat?”

Frodo quickly seated himself beside of Merry and said, “Just wait.”

Merry gave him a puzzled look, but had no time to ask what he was to wait for because his Aunt Geranium was standing at the head of the table ready to give her birthday speech.

“I am old,” Geranium began and everyone laughed. “I have been old for quite some time now, but I don’t mind it so very much. In fact I am rather pleased to have made it this far and to have seen all that I have seen and done all that I have done. I do want to thank all of you for a very lovely birthday, particularly Esmeralda, for having this wonderful party for me.” She paused and everyone was beginning to think that she was finished and that they might get down to the business of eating when she cleared her throat and said, “Because I am rather old, I sometimes forget things or mix them up a bit and so I have to apologize to one of my favorite nephews before we begin our meal.” She leaned forward, steadying herself by leaning a hand on the table. “Merry, I am afraid that I mislabeled your gift. That stuffed rabbit was supposed to go to the baby, but I am having a bit of trouble remembering his name and so I must have written yours instead.”

Merry looked at her intently unable to say anything at all. “I had wrapped a pipe to give to you, but I seem to have left it at home in all the fuss. I have no idea who that red ball was meant for,” she said with a sigh. “I do hope you will forgive me.”

Merry stood and nodded. “Yes, Aunt Geranium. A real pipe?” he asked, in amazement.

“Yes,” she said, with a twinkle in her eyes. “I had thought that you were nearer to sixteen than you are.”

Frodo watched as Merry swelled with pride at this statement.

“As I have made a mess of things, perhaps you will accept a bit of coin instead,” she said, laying some change on the table. Merry looked at his mum who nodded her approval and then quickly made his way around the table to collect the change and give his Aunt a hug while Berilac watched jealously and Frodo smiled.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Did I do that properly,” Aunt Geranium asked, Frodo when they were seated alone in the parlor. Just outside of the room in the hallway, Merry was gloating a bit to Berilac and several other lads, all of whom were giving Merry their full attention and quite a bit of respect.

“You were wonderful,” Frodo said, giving her hand a firm squeeze. “It couldn’t have gone better.”

“Well, I was worried about what Esmeralda might think of that pipe idea of yours, but since I didn’t actually give the lad a pipe I suspect that all is well for now,” she chuckled. “I really did think he was much younger, you know.”

“I know,” Frodo said. “There are so many of us that it’s hard to keep it all straight, isn’t it?”

“It is, unless you have a wise young lad like you for assistance,” she said, smiling at him. “That was very thoughtful of you. Now, young Meriadoc feels better and I don’t look like a such an old fool for giving him that rabbit.”

“You could never look like a fool, Aunt Geri,” Frodo assured her.

“We both know that all of you Bagginses are sweet talkers, Frodo,” Geranium laughed. “You have dear Bilbo’s way with the ladies, I suspect.” She winked at him.

Frodo blushed slightly and said, “There’s no one quite like Bilbo.”

“I suspect that Merry thinks that of you about now,” she said, looking out at the lad in the hallway with his cousins.

“And all of this started out as a way to keep little Peregrin from crying,” Frodo said, with a sigh. “That little one is quite a handful.”

________________________________________________________________

It was late and Merry was supposed to be in bed, but he had crept into the nursery and was leaning over the side of Peregrin’s crib and whispering to the baby who was looking up at him happily with an arm about the large, grey, bunny. “Maybe you are useful some of the time,” Merry said. “If you hadn’t carried on about that rabbit, then Frodo wouldn’t have spoken to Aunt Geranium and straightened things out the way he did.”

The baby kicked a foot and gurgled and Merry continued. “Frodo went out to see if maybe she might be willing to trade the rabbit for the ball so Berilac wouldn’t be able to tease me and that’s when he found out that Aunt Geri meant to give me a pipe on account of she thinks I’m older than I am,” Merry said, proudly. “Berilac is so jealous! Naturally, mum won’t let me have a pipe until I’m older, but I can buy loads of sweets with the money that Aunt Geri gave me and Berilac is ever so jealous because I look older than him and I’m not.”

“Mee,” Peregrin said, kicking again.

Merry grinned. “I don’t care what they think, you know. I know that you’re lots smarter than they realize and even smarter than you let on. You can’t fool me, you little Pip Squeak. You wanted this old rabbit and so you figured out how to get it, didn’t you?”

The baby giggled and hugged the rabbit even tighter.

“I thought so,” Merry said, with a smile. “Just don’t try anything on me because I know all about you. You’re tricky.” He turned to go and the baby whined softly.

Merry looked back and said, “Oh, all right. Thank you for helping out today, but I do know that you only did it to get that rabbit. This may be the first time that you and I have worked on something together, but I do know perfectly well that you got what you wanted out of it too.”

E-roh!” Peregrin crowed, grinning up at Merry.

“That is a very strange name for a stuffed rabbit, Peregrin,” Merry said. “But if you insist on calling it Errol, than I suspect that you’ll get your way. You always do.”

The End

G.W. 05/15/2005