Note to the Reader:
These notes are for my benefit as well as for anyone else's. I am trying to keep facts straight while making the story stand alone for anyone who hasn't read any of the other inter-related stories. Thus, hopefully one can read the story without stumbling over a lot of "asides" for the Reader who is saying, "But what about...?" in reference to a previously published story. A new reader, of course, worries about none of these things, but if you're like me you often wonder...

Chapter 1. Me and My Wife Settled Down
Pippin swore an oath of loyalty to the hobbits who served him in "Runaway", which is set a few months before "While There's Breath..." He did not, however, promise to make life easier for the hobbits of his escort.

I thought up the Thain's escort very early in the writing. It seemed logical to me that an important hobbit might be guarded, when travelling, from such hazards as stray dogs and wild swine, not to mention wolves and ruffians. What might have started out as a casual precaution, long years past, might have been cemented by years of practice into a rather rigid tradition.

Ferdi's head aches whenever there's a weather change, legacy of a ruffian's club in the Battle of Bywater, and a bad fall while riding in a pony-race, and a recent encounter with ruffians (A Matter of Appearances). Though he is well-recovered from that latest incident, by the time of this story (after all, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam came back from the brink of death in a fortnight, at Cormallen), his head will continue to bother him when the weather is changing, and because of all the rattling his poor brains have taken over the years, it doesn't take more than a tap on the head in a later story (under construction) to send him into temporary amnesia.

One example of the difficulty in getting to Pincup in rainy weather can be found in All that Glisters.

Pippin feels he must be in Buckland on the fifteenth of March because that is the anniversary of Merry's encounter with the Witch King. It is on his way back from this upcoming visit that At the End of His Rope begins.

Pippin's pony "Socks" is in semi-retirement after a bad fall while racing (see Flames and StarFire). Pippin still rides Socks on short, undemanding journeys, but for longer or harder use he rides "Firefoot", a high-spirited and speedy mare descended from Ferdibrand's "StarFire" (also known as "Star").

Hilly's wife has a slow-moving terminal illness, and Pippin doesn't take him away from his Posey for very long or very often. (See All that Glisters.)

The story of Ferdi and Nell, and how they came to be married (even though it is nearly unheard-of for a hobbit to marry a second time), is to be found in Flames.

Pimpernel's first child with Ferdi was born in FirstBorn, her second in Runaway, and her third... well, that won't be in this story, nor in any story already published, at the time of this writing.

Chapter 2. Stay There By Your Fireside Bright
Pippin's lungs were damaged not only by having a troll fall on him in the battle before the Black Gate, but several years after his return to the Shire he suffered a serious bout with pneumonia. ("The Old Gaffer's Friend", so named because it took the elderly rather swiftly and painlessly. It also took a grievous number of younger and stronger hobbits.) Though given up for lost, he was too stubborn to die, and had a long and slow recovery. Severe scarring of his lungs led to chronic breathing problems, bronchitis, and asthma-like symptoms. Thus everyone around him is watchful of his health (more so than he is himself), and those closest to him are all too aware that all it would take is "a lungful of smoke, or dust, or just a simple cold gone into the chest" to carry him off.

More on the pneumonia can be found in Jewels, in draft form at ff.net under authorname Lindelea1. Pippin's struggles with health are detailed in all the stories from Jewels to At the End of His Rope. See "Chronology of Stories" for a listing. My editor-friend also posted the chronology so you see it when you click on the authorname link "Lindelea" (which appears right by the title of each story I've posted) here at SoA.

Have outlined a Bandobras story but not written it yet. So many ideas, so little time!

Chapter 3. To Jump into the River and Drown
Conventional wisdom says you don't walk onto a flooded bridge, even though everything seems to be in working condition. Why are these characters ignoring this safety rule?

1) It avoids a boring story?

2) Appearances to the contrary, there's not a lot of flooding in Tookland as a rule (not like Buckland, set beside a mighty river). Why, years, decades even, can pass peacefully. In real life there might not be a flood for 100 years and then two "flood years" relatively close together. Anyhow, Tookland doesn't flood every year the way Buckland has a tendency to. There's just been a very wet spring this year, and rivers are above flood stage. If the streams were always this high, don't you think hobbits would be smart enough to build their bridges higher?

3) Tooks are a funny combination of arrogance and naiveté... sort of like the rest of us.

Hobbits can swim? you say incredulously.

Well, Brandybucks can, and while fanon has many examples of Merry teaching Pippin to swim, it does make sense to me that our Took might have learned this skill.

In my tradition of "the escort" I have arbitrarily decided that there were three prerequisites for achieving a place in this prestigious calling: to be able to a) run far, b) shoot accurately (we're talking archery and stone-throwing), and c) ride skilfully. If you think about it, you have to be in pretty good physical condition to run any distance. Those who cannot imagine hobbits running, just think of Fatty Bolger managing to run an entire mile before collapsing. Granted, he was in desperate fear at the time, but you try to run a mile, untrained, and see how far you get!

I also postulated at some point (probably in Flames) that the winner of the annual archery Tournament in Tookland (yes, I made it up) would have the first refusal of being the Head of the hobbits of the Thain's escort, a highly prestigious position and also a little better paid than just a "plain" escort. Can't tell you why, exactly. But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Pippin added a fourth requirement: knowing how to swim. Despite the Tookish resistance he met, these hobbits were working for him and so he could press his point home. Considering how dangerous the wilds of the Green Hills could be, with rivers and bogs, it's probably a good skill to have.

Chapter 4. Sometimes I Take a Great Notion
The way Pippin keeps Ferdi going comes directly out of my memory of Bruce’s narration of Sometimes a Great Notion. So I suppose credit for the idea goes to Ken Kesey. Since I’ve not yet read his book and only heard a scant description of what sounds like a riveting scene, I’m not copying what he wrote. So far as the idea of using rescue-breathing, I might have thought it up on my own bent, perhaps. But let me give credit where it’s due.

Therefore the chapter title is a bow to Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion.

Not too many months ago, one little one was dozing on the bed while the other was jumping (strictly forbidden, by the way). The jumper unbalanced and fell backwards, back of head striking dozer rather like a cannonball on the point of the eyebrow. Dozer suffered a concussion and lost the sight in the right eye for some hours. At first all was black, then a dull grey blur (when a light was shined directly in the eye), and gradually vision returned, first shapes, and finally colour. So Ferdi’s blindness is based in fact. It’s not his eyes, but what’s going on inside his head. (This has also happened to Pippin, in a pre-Quest incident at Whittacres, his family's farm, and to Merry while in Minas Tirith around the time of Elessar's wedding, outlined in stories yet to be finished and published.)

Chapter 5. I'll Love Her ‘til the Seas Run Dry
The details of events briefly mentioned in this chapter can be found in Flames and Runaway. Edit: Oops, forgot to mention Pearl of Great Price, in which the events after the stable fire are covered more fully than anywhere else.

If you're curious about how they got Ferdi free, I've worked it out but have no time to type it in. If you really are curious, say something in a review and either I or my editor-friend will add the details to these notes later.

Chapter 6. I'll See You in my Dreams
This story ends shortly before At the End of His Rope begins. In the action that happens between this story and that one, Ferdi drives the coach to the Crowing Cockerel, they stay overnight, and then he drives them nearly to Stock. About an hour's walk/easy ride from Stock he stops the coach, hops down as Pippin climbs up to take the reins, and takes his leave, walking south a ways from the road to the home of Hally Woodcarver (Bolger), where he spends a fortnight visiting sister Rosemary and her family.

In one of the later chapters of One Who Sticks Closer Than a Brother, Tolly has been added to the party. He escorts the Thain and family as he sees fit and proper, all the way to Stock (thus heading off any gossip, or consternation on Tolly's part -- as head of escort, he'd be very disappointed in Ferdi if he found out that Ferdi, trusted to escort Pippin all the way to Buckland... didn't). Tolly goes on his way, fulfilling a commission for the Thain, after dropping Pippin, Diamond, and Farry at Buckland... but that's to be found in the concluding chapters of One Who Sticks Closer.)

And so, remaining consistent with earlier-written stories, Ferdi never comes close enough to see the Brandywine up close at this point on the timeline.

As pre-arranged, on a certain day Ferdi walks back to the road to meet the coach with the Thain's returning family, takes up the reins once more, and begins the drive back to the Great Smials. They stay overnight at the Crowing Cockerel and leave in the morning refreshed and eager for home.

Before the Road leaves the woods for the grassy rolling hills surrounding Tuckborough, the coach "comes a-cropper", and At the End of His Rope begins...