Do It Again

Merry found Pippin in his bedroom. He was standing on the seat of the rocking chair and tightly holding onto its high back as it rocked back and forth.

"No, no, no!" Merry cried, darting forward and stopping the chair's movement. "You mustn't do that, Pippin," he said firmly. "It's very dangerous. You might tip over!"

Pippin dropped down to the seat of the chair and gazed up at his cousin with large, tear-filled eyes. "Sorry, Merry," he whispered, and screwed up his face, ready to cry.

"It's all right," Merry said quickly, scooping up Pippin in his arms and settling them both in the chair. "Let's rock back and forth, just a little," he offered, and slowly moved the chair to and fro.

Pippin beamed and clapped his hands, tears forgotten, and maneuvered himself so he sat facing Merry. "Sing my song!" he crowed, and clutched his cousin's hands tightly in anticipation.

Merry grinned. Pippin's "song" had been Merry's once; he had learned it from Frodo, who once held claim to it, years before. "All right," he agreed, and rocked the chair a bit more as he began to sing:

"See, saw,

Knock at the door.

Who's there?

Pippin's there!

What does he want?

He wants a biscuit.

Where's the biscuit?

In his pocket!"

Following years of tradition, Merry dipped Pippin with a flourish at the word "pocket," and his cousin shrieked with laughter as he hung upside down.

"Again! Again! Please, Merry?" Pippin squealed, bouncing a little as Merry dutifully began to sing again.

This time Pippin joined him in singing, though he made up the words he could not remember. "Swing, strong," he sang at the top of his lungs, and Merry laughed, having too much fun to correct his cousin or to bother slowing down the chair, which was now rocking very quickly.

"Again, again!" Pippin demanded every time, and with each song the chair's rocking grew faster and faster until they were speeding through the air as the floorboards creaked in protest below. So wrapped up in song and laughter, neither hobbit noticed until the chair suddenly lurched forward, balancing precariously on the very edge of the rockers.

For half a moment they seemed to hover in midair. Pippin's eyes went very round and Merry had just enough time to clutch his cousin tighter before they finally tipped forward, hurtling to the ground with a thunderous crash.

Trailed by her daughters, Eglantine ran through the door and felt her heart give a funny little twist when she saw the overturned chair with Merry's legs sticking out beneath it. But then she heard her son's voice, muffled but clearly overjoyed.

"That was fun, Merry!" Pippin was saying. "Do it again!"

((The silly little song here is something my grandma used to sing to my cousins and me (but it was "mine" first!). I have no idea where she got it from, so I'm not sure if it's a nursery rhyme or what. All I know is that for the purposes of this story I changed the original words from "some money" to "a biscuit." The original didn't seem hobbity enough to me!))