Part 4

Merry had decided to go back into Hobbiton for lunch but wound up walking a bit further.  He knew that Sam and Pippin would soon come into the Bag End kitchen for luncheon.  He didn’t think Sam had taken enough food out to the barn in that basket to get much past elevenses.  He decided to avoid another confrontation by eating in town.  Though he usually favored The Green Dragon or getting something from the town’s wonderful baked goods shop, he found himself making the longer walk to the Ivy Bush. 

The Ivy Bush was often populated by the older citizens of Hobbiton and Bywater.  It was a nice enough place and Merry had to admit that the food was excellent but it wasn’t the most exciting place in the Shire.  Old Gaffers sat around and gossiped all day long with little thought to what they were saying or who might over-hear.  Merry remembered that his own father had once told him, “If you want to find out exactly what’s going on in the Shire all you need to do is have a drink at The Ivy.  Just mind that you don’t believe everything you hear in there.”

Merry wasn’t after news.  He just wanted to be left alone.  He would probably be the youngest hobbit in The Ivy Bush and therefore he would be of very little interest to the locals.  Save for a few ‘hellos’ and ‘how do you dos’ for the Master of Buckland’s son just out of politeness, he would most likely be left alone.

The nice older serving maid who worked The Ivy most days came over immediately and took Merry's lunch order the moment he sat down.  That was hardly any surprise, as most of the patrons didn’t seem to be ordering anything.  They had either all eaten earlier or they hadn’t started.  Merry noticed Sam’s father, Hamfast Gamgee sitting at his favorite table with a draught board in front of him.  Another old hobbit sat across from the Hamfast and the two were engrossed in a game.  Merry didn’t know most of the hobbits in The Ivy and so he was able to order his lunch and sit back in his chair and sulk about the state of things back at Bag End.

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Pippin had picked up the hammer again and was waving it about as he spoke.  “What should we, er, I do now, Sam?” Pippin asked.  “I’ve taken my first wheel barrow apart so how do I start the second one?”

Sam wanted to say that the first one had not exactly been a wheelbarrow but he was more concerned with that hammer just now.  Pippin often waved his hands about when talking but the lad didn’t usually have a hammer in one of them.  Sam came carefully over to join Pippin at the worktable and took hold of Pippin’s wrist.  “You’ll want to put that hammer down on the table for a bit, Master Pippin,” Sam suggested.  “I think we might start with something else this time.”

Pippin complied.  “What should we start with?”

“Well, if you’re goin’ to build somethin’ it’s good to have a plan for it,” Sam said.  “What you need is something to go by whilst you build your wheel barrow.”

“I know!” Pippin crowed excitedly and he turned and hurried off toward the far end of the barn.  Sam watched the lad go, scratching his head and wondering what Master Pippin was going after.

Still walking a bit awkwardly in the foot guards and wearing the gloves without the fingers, Pippin came back pushing Mister Frodo’s old wheel barrow.  “This should help,” Pippin smiled.  “I can look at this one and then build mine to look like it,” the lad said as he pushed the wheelbarrow over one of Sam’s feet.  “Oh, sorry, Sam,” Pippin said backing the wheelbarrow up and going over Sam’s foot a second time.  “Sorry,” he said and Sam reached out a hand to stay the wheelbarrow.

“Good thing that isn’t full ‘o rocks or somethin’” Sam said.

Pippin bit his lower lip.  “I should have looked closer.”

“Didn’t hurt none,” Sam lied.  “Now this here will give you an idea ‘o what a wheelbarrow looks like when it’s done, but you might need a bit more than that.  Can you think what I mean?”

Pippin puzzled a bit and then his eyes lit up.  “You want me to take this one apart too!  Then I can see what it looks like in pieces.”

“No, that ain’t what I was thinkin’ you should do, Master Pippin,” Sam said quickly as the lad was already reaching for that darned hammer again.

“What then?” Pippin frowned.

“You and me are goin’ to draw us a plan for your wheelbarrow,” Sam said.

“I can’t draw,” Pippin admitted.

“Neither can I,” Sam smiled.

“Then how will we do it?” Pippin asked, confused.  “Are we going to have Frodo draw it?  He’s very good at drawing.  Merry’s fairly good but Frodo is better at it and I don’t think Merry will want to help.”

“We won’t be needin’ either o’ them,” Sam said.  “We’re going to take some charcoal and draw this plan out on our own.”  Sam pulled a piece of charcoal from his trouser pocket and got a piece of parchment out from under the worktable.  There was a small shelf underneath the table and Sam knew that Mister Frodo always keep some parchment there.  Sam spread the parchment out on the table top next to the dreaded hammer and handed the charcoal to Master Pippin.  “Here.”

Pippin looked at the charcoal as if he’d never seen any before and frowned.  “I can’t draw anything Sam,” he said.

Sam ignored that and said, “This don’t have to look like a real wheel barrow on paper.  It’s what they call a rough draft.  All we’re doin’ is getting’ a plan set in our heads for the way this project ought to come about.  Now what do you think is the most important part of the wheel barrow?”

“The wheels?” Pippin asked.

“That’s fine, but there’s only one wheel,” Sam said and he pointed to Mister Frodo’s wheelbarrow that sat beside of the table.

“I know that one only has one wheel but the one I want to make is going to have three wheels,” Pippin said brightly.

“Wheelbarrows are only supposed to have one wheel,” Sam explained patiently.  “Two wheels is for an upright push cart, four wheels is for a wagon, and one for a wheelbarrow.”

“But look, Sam,” Pippin said, his eyes gleaming as he spoke.  “Say you have your wheel barrow full of stones and you have to take it up a steep hill to where you are working.”  Pippin put the charcoal down on the paper and drew a line to represent a hill.  “It’s a long way up and the stones are heavy so it’s hard to balance the load,” Pippin continued and he drew a small triangle with a circle at the bottom of it.  Sam knew this must be the wheelbarrow.  “You have all of the weight on your arms and this one wheel,” Pippin said.  He then took the charcoal and drew two smaller wheels at the back of the triangle.  “Now, if you had two extra wheels on the back you’d be able to balance the load a bit easier until you got to the top of the hill and all of the weight wouldn’t be on your arms,” Pippin said.  “You could roll it up the hill using all three wheels and then when you got to the top you could lift the handles and raise the two back wheels off of the ground again.  You make them smaller so that they aren’t in your way when you don’t want them to touch the ground,” Pippin said.  “This way you can haul more in one load even if you aren’t that strong because the small wheels in the back take some of the load.”

Sam thought this over and then asked, “When you get it to where you’re goin’ how do you keep it from rollin’ off?  With Mister Frodo’s wheelbarrow here, you just sit it down on those back braces and it don’t roll back down the hill.  How do you came a thing like that steady while you unload it?” He pointed to Pippin’s drawing.

“You put those little bars on that lock the wheels in place like they have on baby carts,” Pippin said.  “When you get it up the hill, you just lock up the wheels and there you are.”

“Where did you get this idea?” Sam asked.

“I got it from watching my father on the farm,” Pippin said.  “And from trying to move too many stones in a wheelbarrow one time myself.”  Pippin blushed a bit.  “I got the thing all loaded up and then I couldn’t move it because it was too heavy so I had to unload it right there, push half as many stones as it would have held up to where we were working and then make a second trip.  If the thing had only had two more wheels I could have moved it fine and saved a trip.  I even told my father that we ought to put extra wheels on ours but he just laughed and said I’d get stronger when I got older.”

Sam bent down and looked at Mister Frodo’s traditional wheelbarrow.  Pippin’s feet shifted a bit and he said, “I guess you’re going to tell me that I’ll get stronger later too or that I’m just plain daft for wanting to put extra wheels on.”

Sam stood up and grinned at Pippin and then patted him on the shoulder.  “No, I ain’t goin’ to do no such thing as that,” Sam said.  “I’m goin’ to let you put them extra wheels on your wheelbarrow because sometimes I’ve seen my old Gaffer struggle a bit to push a load ‘o potatoes up to the smial after diggin’ in the garden all day and him with a bad back at his age.  If he had extra wheels on his wheelbarrow then he’d not have such a struggle and bein’ a stubborn old hobbit, he’d never ask for no help nor take half ‘o the load out and make a second trip.”  Sam grinned at Pippin and said, “I think you got a right clever idea here, Master Pippin.”

“Really?” Pippin asked.  “Mister Tunnely didn’t think so.  He told me that I should just do it the way it was always done and behave myself.”

 “Just between you and me, Master Pippin,” Sam said in a low tone.  “Them what does the teachin’ don’t always have all the answers.”

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“Well, don’t tell me Mister Frodo nor my Sam didn’t cook up any lunch today,” Hamfast Gamgee said as he walked over to Merry’s table.  “Would you mind some company?”

Merry couldn’t help but smile at the Gaffer.  He’d always liked Sam’s father.  “Have a sit, Gaffer,” Merry said.  “I was just filling up my corners with some of The Ivy Bush’s famous apple cobbler.  Would you like me to have some brought over for you too?”

“I’m way ahead ‘o you lad,” the Gaffer grinned as Willow came over and sat a warm dish of cobbler in front of Hamfast.  She filled up Merry’s glass with more cold milk and sat down a mug of ale for Hamfast.

Merry grinned.  “This is the best cobbler in the Shire.”

“That’s right enough since my dear Belle passed on,” Hamfast smiled a bit sadly.  “When she was alive this was the second best cobbler in the Shire.  Now, I suspect it does hold first place.  So, how come you ain’t takin’ your lunch at Bag End?”

“How come you aren’t eating some of Marigold’s fine cooking?” Merry asked.

“She away for a few days and I’m fendin’ for myself,” Hamfast grinned.  “Well, me and Sam are fending for ourselves, but he’s right busy today.  I don’t want to put more work on ‘im.”

A slight scowl passed over Merry’s face.  “He’s busy all right.”

“I was forced to drink my breakfast thanks to Sam,” Hamfast chuckled.  “Course I suspect I was worryin’ for nothin’ anyways.  Some folks is just sensationalist is all.”

Merry’s scowl was replaced by a confused look.  “Drink your breakfast?”

“I had lots ‘o ales with that old goat, Tobias Tunnely is what,” Hamfast said taking a generous bite of his cobbler.

“Mister Tunnel was in here for breakfast?” Merry asked eating a bite of his own cobbler.

“He was and he was goin’ on and on ‘bout that cousin ‘o yours,” Hamfast said around a mouthful of cobbler.  “Talkin’ bout Master Peregrin like the lad was some sort ‘o jinx or somethin’.  Even had me a might worried for my Sam.”

Merry looked up from his cobbler and frowned.  “What did he say about Pippin?”

“Told me the lad almost killed ‘im whilst he were tryin’ to learn ‘im carpentry,” Hamfast said.

“Pippin didn’t almost kill him and he is not a jinx,” Merry objected becoming defensive.  “He’s just a bit accident prone, that's all.”

“Well, the old goat told me that Master Peregrin hit him a'top the noggin’ with a hammer,” Hamfast said as he shoveled more cobbler into his mouth and chewed noisily.

“That was only an accident,” Merry said starting to feel angry on Pippin’s behalf.

The Gaffer chuckled.  “That’s what I think but between you and me and this here table when Tobias got done with his sensationalizin’ I was a might worried about poor Sam.  I was afraid that my lad might get his skull dented if he helped Master Peregrin with his buildin’.  That’s why I drank my breakfast.  Had more than a few ales to calm my nerves, I did.”

“Pippin wouldn’t hurt anyone and especially not Sam,” Merry said his cobbler forgotten.

“Course not.  Least not on purpose,” Hamfast said as he took the last bite of his cobbler and washed it down with a large gulp of ale.  “Course accidents do happen and I hear tell they happen more than not when Master Peregrin’s about.”  He winked at Merry.  “You goin’ to finish that.” He pointed to Merry’s uneaten cobbler.

Merry pushed his bowl over in front of the Gaffer and said, “Well, I just hope that Tobias Tunnely isn’t going all over the Shire talking about Pippin because if he is than I am very sure that Frodo or Uncle Paladin will have something to say about it.  In fact, I suspect that one of them will fire the old wind bag.”

“No need,” Hamfast said as he set to work on Merry’s cobbler.

“Why’s that?” Merry asked.

“Old goat told me hisself that he weren’t never goin’ near your cousin again,” Hamfast said.

“You mean to say that he told you he’d quit?” Merry asked.

“More than quit,” Hamfast said as he licked some stray cobbler off of his own chin.  “Says that Mister Frodo’d have to kidnap his wife a’fore he’d go back to teachin’ Master Peregrin carpentry and just between you and me and this here table, I don’t think that’d do it.  Tobias Tunnely don’t exactly cherish that sore old wife ‘o his to begin with.”

“But Uncle Paladin paid him,” Merry said.

“I’m sure he did,” Hamfast said as he finished the last of the cobbler and waved to Willow to bring another bowl.  “But old Tobias sent the payment back, or so he told me.”

“Well he told Pippin to work on his project for a week and then he’d be back to see how it was progressing,” Merry said.  “Pippin thinks that Mister Tunnely will be coming back to see how he’s doing and to finish teaching him about carpentry.”

Willow sighed and sat another bowl of cobbler in front of Hamfast.  “Aren’t you ever goin’ home, Gaffer?” she asked.  “You’re eatin’ and drinkin’ us clean out ‘o business today.”

Hamfast chuckled and swatted her on the rump.  “I’m one ‘o your best customers and don’t you pretend that you ain’t noticed it.”  He lifted his spoon again and started on the fresh cobbler.

Willow snorted and walked away muttering, “That girl ‘o his better get herself home before we have to toss her father out ‘o here on his ear.”

“Gaffer, Pippin thinks-“

“He may think it but I know it ain’t so,” Hamfast interrupted.  “You ought to get yourself another dish ‘o cobbler, Mister Merry.  Finest apple cobbler in all the Shire now that my Belle’s gone.”

Merry just sat there and watched the Gaffer eat.  It seemed as it they had a very big problem.  It was starting to look as if Pippin wasn’t going to be taking carpentry lessons this summer unless they could find a braver hobbit than Tobias Tunnely for the job.

  TBC