A Gift For Errol

Frodo had just filled a plate with biscuits and cakes and was turning to head back to the parlour when he was confronted by a very determined looking Pippin. The nine-year-old was looking up at him with a very serious expression on his face. The child was clutching a large, stuffed, grey rabbit in his arms.

“Did you forget something?” Pippin asked frowning at Frodo.

“I don’t think so,” Frodo said looking down at his plate. “No, I believe I’ve managed to get some of everything, Pippin.”

Pippin’s frown deepened. The child was most assuredly annoyed about something but Frodo wasn’t certain what. At that moment Merry joined them. He was munching on a biscuit and grinning pleasantly. “Got enough food, Cousin?” Merry asked looking at Frodo’s plate.

“Why is everyone so concerned about my eating habits?” Frodo sighed.

Pippin turned his attention on Merry now. “Merry, what did you get Errol for Yule?” the child asked hugging the big rabbit.

“What did I get Errol?” Merry looked surprised. He stared at the stuffed rabbit for a moment and then quickly shifted his attention to Frodo. “What did you get Errol, Frodo?” Merry said casually. Merry had always been able to think on his feet. You might catch Merry off guard for a minute or two but he nearly always recovered quickly.

This time Frodo was ready. He’d been through this last year and had not faired too well. Pippin had come up to him at the Yule party carrying that stuffed rabbit whose name was Errol and had asked that very question. Frodo had not got the rabbit anything at all and had spent the evening trying to explain his mistake to Pippin. He had decided then and there that he would not be in that position again. Smiling, Frodo handed his plate to Merry. “Hold that for a minute, will you, Merry?” Then he reached into his trouser pocket and removed a small package. “This is Errol’s gift.” He handed the package to a delighted Pippin and retrieved his plate from a dumbfounded Merry.

“Look, Errol,” Pippin said holding the package in front of the rabbit’s remarkably life-like eyes. “I told you Frodo wouldn’t forget two years in a row.”

“Close your mouth, Meriadoc or someone is likely to come by and stick a biscuit into it,” Frodo whispered, still smiling.

Pippin shook the small package for the rabbit and then looked at Frodo. “Errol says thank you,” Pippin said.

Merry, partly recovered, squinted at the package. “Did you get that for the rabbit or did you just happen to have something extra in case you ran into someone you forgot?”

“It’s for Errol,” Frodo said pointing to the tag on the package. “It says so on the card.”

“Errol, from Frodo,” Pippin read happily.

“What did Errol get Frodo then?” Merry challenged.

Pippin frowned. “Merry, Errol is a stuffed rabbit.”

“I know that!” Merry said looking annoyed. “But what did he get Frodo for Yule?”

“Merry,” Pippin said patiently. “Stuffed rabbits don’t have any money. Errol doesn’t give Yule gifts. He’s a stuffed rabbit.” Pippin sighed and gave Frodo a knowing look.

“If Errol doesn’t give gifts then how can you expect everyone else to give Errol gifts?” Merry objected.

“Not everyone,” Pippin said. “Just you and me and Frodo give Errol gifts.”

“If Errol didn’t get us anything then why should we give him anything?” Merry said determined to make his point.

“Because,” Pippin said. “You don’t give gifts just to get gifts. You give them because you feel good if you do. Papa says that even if other folks forget to give me something I’m supposed to feel good because I got them something. It’s the joy of giving.”

Merry sputtered and Frodo continued to smile. “You give Errol something for Yule because it makes you feel good and because you like him,” Pippin said. “Isn’t that right, Frodo?”

“It most certainly is, Pippin. I know I feel immense joy because I was able to give Errol a gift this year,” Frodo said. He did not say that he also felt very relieved not to be on the receiving end of Pippin’s disappointment like he had been last year. Taking a bite of one of the small cakes from his plate Frodo watched Merry struggle to collect himself.

Pippin looked at Merry again. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“What did you get for Errol for Yule?” Pippin asked.

“I think you’re using Errol to get extra gifts for yourself,” Merry said recovering again. “I think that you are taking advantage of us and of Errol.”

Frodo looked at the grey rabbit who now appeared to be frowning at Merry in a most unpleasant way. Frodo was certain that this must be a trick of the light but it made him shake his head as if to clear his vision.

“I am not!” Pippin said looking shocked. “I wouldn’t do that to Errol!” He hugged the rabbit tightly. “Whatever is in this present it’s for Errol and it will be something Errol likes. It is something Errol likes, isn’t it, Frodo?” Pippin looked at Frodo worriedly.

“I suppose he’ll like it,” Frodo said. “I don’t select gifts for many stuffed rabbits and so I may have been mistaken in my choice but I tried to get something that I thought Errol might like. Why don’t you open it for him and see if he likes it?”

“Alright,” Pippin agreed. He thrust Errol into Merry’s arms. “I need both hands to open the package. Hold Errol so he can see what Frodo’s given him, Merry.”

“Why do I have to hold the rabbit?” Merry demanded as a couple of lasses walked by the table of food and pointed at Merry. Both of them giggled and walked away quickly. Merry blushed. “Don’t take all day, Pippin.”

“I don’t want to spoil the wrapping,” Pippin said as he carefully opened the package. “Pearl says if you open gifts slowly you can use the pretty paper again.”

“Those lasses are ruining him,” Merry muttered to Frodo.

Pippin grinned and held up the item that had been in the package. “Errol loves this!”

Merry looked at the small brush in Pippin’s hands and then at Frodo. “You got the rabbit a brush?”

“I thought Errol might enjoy looking his best for important occasions,” Frodo said.

“He will!” Pippin said smiling. “Look, Errol.” He pulled the rabbit from Merry’s arms and began to run the brush through its fur.

“You got that for Pippin,” Merry said looking at Frodo.

“No he didn’t!” Pippin said. “He knows I don’t like to brush my hair. He’d never give me a brush, would you, Frodo?”

“Not the longest day that I live, Pippin,” Frodo said enjoying Merry’s annoyance.

At that moment, Bilbo passed. He patted Pippin on the head and said, “Errol is looking very dapper today.”

“He has a new brush,” Pippin said proudly.

“I could tell,” Bilbo said. “Errol looks very well groomed.”

Merry was livid now. “He knew what you bought the rabbit,” Merry hissed at Frodo.

“I don’t think I mentioned it to him but I suppose I might have,” Frodo shrugged.

“Well?” Pippin asked looking at Merry again.

“What?” Merry said looking dangerously angry now.

“What did you get Errol for Yule, Merry?”

Exasperated, Merry looked around the kitchen and then hurried over to the pantry, opened it and went inside.

“What’s he doing?” Pippin asked looking at Frodo.

“I don’t know,” Frodo said truthfully. He and Pippin waited. Inside the pantry Merry could be heard rummaging around and muttering to himself.

Merry returned carrying a jar of raspberry jam, which he thrust into Pippin’s hands. “Happy Yule, Errol,” Merry said tightly.

Pippin looked at the jar and then at Merry. “You didn’t wrap it.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” Merry said. “Besides, it takes you all day long to open a gift and I didn’t want Errol to be in suspense for all of that time.”

Frodo was sniggering but he didn’t dare say anything just now.

Pippin blinked. “Why was Errol’s gift in the pantry?”

“I hid it in here,” Merry said frustrated with all of the questions. “You keep this up and you’ll take all of the joy out of my gift, Pippin.”

“I don’t want to do that,” Pippin said. “But you got Errol jam?”

“Errol does like jam doesn’t he? I’ve seen him with it in his fur many times so he must like it,” Merry said. “You do, don’t you, Errol?”

For some reason the rabbit looked amused to Frodo. Perhaps he shouldn’t have any more of the mulled wine this evening or maybe it was the way Pippin was holding the thing. The child treated the rabbit as if it were alive and Frodo supposed that was colouring his own view of it. There was also the fact that Merry was leaning over and looking the bunny in the eye as he spoke.

“Errol says thank you for the jam, Merry,” Pippin said politely. “He likes it very much and he and I are sorry we didn’t think you’d got him anything.”

“I accept your apologies,” Merry said and he walked off leaving Frodo and Pippin staring after him.

“Don’t tell Merry, Frodo, but Errol doesn’t really eat jam,” Pippin said in a low voice.

“He doesn’t?”

“Stuffed rabbits don’t eat, Frodo,” Pippin said patiently. “I just sometimes get jam on Errol when I’m eating it.”

“Well, it’s an honest mistake, Pippin,” Frodo said. “Since Errol does sometimes have jam in his fur, it’s only reasonable that Merry might think Errol liked jam.”

Pippin nodded. “Errol doesn’t like jam at all. He hates it when I get him all sticky with it. That’s why he likes this brush that you got him. Errol likes to be neat. I like jam.”

“You could always eat the jam yourself,” Frodo suggested. “Merry wouldn’t have to know.”

“I could and I could tell him that Errol ate it and then me and Errol wouldn’t hurt Merry’s feelings,” Pippin smiled looking hungrily at the jam.

“But don’t eat it all at once,” Frodo warned.

Pippin shook his head. “I’ll make it last.”

“You aren’t angry with Merry for not getting something that Errol likes are you?” Frodo asked.

“No, it really is the thought that counts,” Pippin said happily. “Merry just needs to think better.”

The End

GW 12/23/2007