Part 12

Pippin tried to avert his gaze. His eyes were still not used to the early morning sunlight. Sam had come into the barn, woke him up and ushered him outside where Frodo and Merry were waiting for him. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What’s wrong, Frodo?" he asked in a voice that was still thick with sleep.

"We were looking for you," Frodo frowned. "You didn’t mention to anyone that you would be sleeping in the barn."

"I guess I forgot," Pippin said yawning again. "Is it time for breakfast?"

"Don’t change the subject, Peregrin Took," Frodo said firmly. He watched as Pippin ran a hand through his hair and squinted at him. "You have a perfectly good bed inside of Bag End and yet I wake to find that you’ve spent the night in my barn and this isn’t the first time that this has happened. Now, I am naturally curious."

Pippin seemed to be trying to come up with a reply. He shifted his feet a bit and frowned as if thinking too hard. Then his eyes widened and he said, "I wanted to get an early start on my project. If I have to work on it all by myself now, then I want to have it done before too much longer. I slept in the barn so that I could be ready to begin as soon as I woke up."

"Didn’t I tell you yesterday that I would see to it that you had someone to work with? Didn’t I say that I had someone in mind to hire as your new tutor?" Frodo asked.

Pippin nodded vigorously. "You did, but I just figured that after Mister Tunnely got finished telling everyone about me that you wouldn’t be able to find anyone."

Frodo looked over at Sam and then back at Pippin. "You would be wrong, Pippin," Frodo said.

"There’s nothing unusual about that," Pippin sighed.

"I have, just this morning, hired someone to take on the job of tutoring you in carpentry," Frodo said ignoring Pippin’s remark.

"You have?" Pippin asked looking a bit nervous. "Someone very strict and proper I suppose." He twisted the his hands together and looked at his feet. "I suspect that my new tutor will want me to start my project all over again and this will make the third time." Pippin then looked at Frodo inquiringly. "Is my new tutor very old?"

"What do you consider old?" Frodo asked.

"Well, not old like you are old," Pippin reasoned. " Not that you are all that old, Frodo. But old like Mister Tunnely is or like my father or," Pippin sucked in a breath of air. "It isn’t my father is it?"

"No, I am planning to write to your father this afternoon and tell him that I have replaced Mister Tunnely," Frodo said. "At present, your father is unaware of the change in instructors but I am very sure that he will approve of my decision."

Pippin looked at Frodo again and asked, "So, my new tutor, is he very strict?"

"Well, I doubt that he takes a great deal of nonsense," Frodo said. "After all, he won’t have too much time for foolishness. He is doing me a favor by taking you on. He does have other responsibilities as well."

Merry was trying not to laugh. "This new tutor is a very busy hobbit," Merry said knowingly.

Pippin sighed. "Then I suppose that he has other, better students than me and that he will not be pleased with what I know about carpentry."

"Well, if your new tutor ain’t pleased with what you’ve learned this far, then I suspect he’ll have no one to blame but himself," Sam grinned.

Pippin turned to look at Sam and saw the smile on his friend’s face. "Why would you say that?" Pippin asked.

"Because, Mister Frodo has asked me to be your tutor and as Mister Tobias Tunnely didn’t bother teachin’ you nothing; anything you learned, you learned from me," Sam said. "If I don’t like how you’re comin’ along then I only have myself to blame don’t I?"

Pippin’s eyes lit up and he grinned at Sam. "You? You’ve agreed to keep helping me? You don’t mind? I promise to try not to injure you, Sam and I’ll do the best that I can," Pippin babbled happily. "You really don’t mind? I know I’m not very good yet, but I promise that I’ll try very hard."

Sam grinned. "That you will, Master Pippin. It ain’t exactly like it was a’fore. I’m bein’ paid to help you now and so both of us have got to do this right so that I can earn my pay and you can learn a thing or two about carpentry."

"I’ll just go eat and then I’ll be ready whenever you want to start, Sam," Pippin said excitedly. "This means that I don’t have to start over, doesn’t it?"

"No, you don’t have to start over," Sam said. "We got this far on things and I think we should keep goin’ like we are. You’ve done a good job to this point."

Pippin beamed at him and then looked at Frodo. "What are we having for breakfast?"

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Pippin’s explanation as to why he had slept in the barn had not convinced Frodo but he decided to allow that to pass for the present. He didn’t want anything to spoil Pippin’s enthusiasm for his carpentry lessons with his new tutor. Frodo had all day to find out why Pippin was sleeping in the barn. He dipped his quill into the ink one last time and signed his name to the bottom of the letter to Paladin Took.

Frodo had come into his study to write the letter the first thing after breakfast. He had left a complaining Merry to clean up the breakfast dishes while Pippin and Sam went on to the barn. He wanted to get this letter to the post before the riders left for the Tooklands. He had been forced to make decisions about Pippin’s education without consulting the lad’s father. Frodo had not been left with any choice in the matter save to take Pippin to Whitwell and inform Paladin in person. He hoped that his letter would be enough to satisfy Paladin.

There was no doubt in Frodo’s mind that Sam Gamgee was the best hobbit for the job as Pippin’s carpentry tutor. Frodo hoped that this letter would convey as much to Pippin’s father. Paladin had been set on hiring Tobias Tunnely. Under the circumstances, Frodo didn’t know what Paladin might have done, but Frodo felt that he had made the best choice. He carefully folded the letter and placed it into an envelope.

With this task completed, he was free to concentrate on the mystery of Pippin’s recent sleeping arrangements.

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"When did you get this, Sam?" Pippin asked looking at the large pail of shellac.

"I mixed it up this morning in the tool shed a’fore I went to see Mister Frodo," Sam smiled. "I didn’t know then who was goin’ to be your new teacher but I figured that you still might be wantin’ to finish the wheelbarrow that you were workin’ on. I noticed last night after I come back from my work in the gardens that you’d done the sandin’."

Pippin grinned broadly. "Did I do it right? I tried to do it like you showed me," Pippin said.

"You done a fine job on it, Master Pippin," Sam smiled. "Only I did notice that one of them little extra wheels was missin’."

Pippin pulled the wheel out of his trouser pocket and placed it on the work table. "I was looking at it and I just kind of like carrying it around," Pippin said.

"Well, you won’t be puttin’ any shellac on it no how," Sam said.

"Oh," Pippin said looking disappointed. "I guess now that you’re a real tutor my wheelbarrow is only going to have the one wheel." Pippin ran a finger over the small wheel and looked dejected.

"You’re still goin’ to use all three wheel," Sam said. "I thought it was a good idea a’fore and that ain’t changed. You just don’t put no shellac on the wheels. If you do, then they might not turn proper. You want them to move smoothly and shellac ain’t the best thing to put on them."

Pippin smiled up at Sam. "But we do put shellac on all of the rest of the wheelbarrow don't we?"

"That we do," Sam said. "I studied on it and we could use milk paint on the wheelbarrow but that won’t protect it from the weather like the shellac will. Also, the shellac will dry faster and we can put several coats on the wood for extra protection. If you was buildin’ a table or some shelves for inside o' the smial then you could use paint or stain."

"Could we stain the wood and then put on the shellac if we wanted to?" Pippin asked.

Sam grinned. "We could do that but after you stain the wood, you’d need to let it set for a while before puttin’ on the shellac. The trouble with that is that your wheelbarrow wouldn’t be done in time for the fair."

Pippin’s eyes widened. "The fair? You mean the one in town?" Pippin was surprised by this. He knew that there was a craft fair in Hobbiton every year, but he hadn’t expected his wheelbarrow to be included in it.

Sam nodded. "Don’t Mister Tunnely’s students usually put what they build on display at the fair?"

Pippin swallowed hard. "I think so. He did mention it, but he said that from the way I was going he didn’t think that my project would be good enough for the fair this year."

Sam patted Pippin on the shoulder and grinned. "That was a’fore you got a new tutor."

Pippin looked at Sam for a moment and then frowned. "Sam, if I put my wheelbarrow in the fair then won’t I have to sell it?" he asked nervously.

"No, you don’t have to sell it but if you get offered a good price for it then you might want to sell it," Sam said.

"I kind of have something in mind for it already," Pippin said a bit evasively. "If I don’t want to sell it, would that be all right?"

"It’s your wheelbarrow, Master Pippin," Sam said. "Or it will be once it’s finished. You don’t have to sell it if you don’t want to. Are you wantin’ to keep it?"

"I want to, well, I want to, I want to give it to someone," Pippin said nervously. "You don’t have to know who, do you?"

"No," Sam smiled. "If you want to make a present of it, then I am sure that whoever you give it to will be right glad to get it."

Pippin smiled. Sam found the little Took’s changeable moods amusing. One minute the lad seemed near tears and then next he was all smiled and sunshine. The lad changed moods from one minute to the next quicker than Sam’s own father could do away with a bowl of cobbler. "We best get you started on the shellac or you’ll never get this wheelbarrow together," Sam said.

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"What are you looking for, Frodo?" Merry asked.

Frodo jumped and turned to face his cousin. "You startled me, Merry. I thought you were cleaning the kitchen," Frodo said. He hadn’t heard Merry come into the room.

"I finished," Merry said. "I do hope that this means that someone else will be cleaning up after second breakfast?"

"I does," Frodo said.

"So?" Merry asked looking beyond Frodo and into the bedroom. "What are you looking for?"

Frodo sighed. "I am looking for a reason for Pippin to want to sleep in the barn instead of in this room."

"Find anything yet?" Merry asked.

"No," Frodo said. "It seems like a perfectly good room to me." He walked further into the small bedroom and looked around. Merry followed him and sat down on the bed.

The room was a bit small but it was large enough to hold a wardrobe, a bed, a night table, and a small chest on which sat a basin and pitcher for morning washing. The room didn’t have a desk but Frodo had suspect that Pippin would rather not have any reminders of writing or studying in the room since the lad was spending so much time on his lessons just now.

The furniture was a dark walnut and had once belonged to Merry’s parents. Saradoc and Esmeralda had given this furniture to Bilbo when they had turned one of their old bedrooms into a small study for Merry. Bilbo, who at that time, had more bedrooms than beds, had been pleased to get the furniture. It was sturdy but it was a bit too large for the room.  It made things look over-crowded.  Frodo walked over and opened the wardrobe and peered inside.

The wardrobe held several extra quilts, an old pack which was empty and had been stored in the wardrobe until one of the straps on it could be mended, a couple of old coats that Frodo had worn several years back but had grown tired of and had meant to give to some deserving relation, two walking sticks, and a bag of peppermint candies which Frodo was sure Pippin had secreted away in the wardrobe for later.

"Anything?" Merry asked as Frodo shut the door to the wardrobe.

"No," Frodo said. "I really need to clean things out a bit. There are a few rather good coats in that wardrobe." He looked about the room at Pippin’s clothes which were tossed about on the floor and hung over the end of the bed. "Maybe I should have cleared out the wardrobe so that Pippin would have somewhere to hang his things."

Merry laughed at this. "Pippin’s things would still be right where they are now. His room at home looks like this and he has plenty of storage there."

"Maybe he’d rather have one of the rooms with a window in it," Frodo said. "I figured that he would like this one so that he could sleep in even after the sun was up. Maybe that was wrong and I should have given him one of the rooms with a window." Frodo smiled. "The truth of it all is that I never expected him to actually sleep in this room anyway. I figured that he would wind up in your room like he usually does. I guess he’s got too old for that."

Merry frowned. "He still comes into my room when he stays at Brandy Hall with us. Well, he did at Yule when he was there with his family." Merry was remembering his dream. Maybe this was the reason that he kept having it. He was used to Pippin coming into his room at night and climbing into bed with him. "Maybe he really is just sleeping in the barn to be near that darned carpentry project of his.  Maybe he thinks that one of us will go out there at night and have a look at it."

Frodo smiled. "It’s killing you that you don’t know what he’s building isn’t it?"

"I don’t care what he’s building," Merry snorted standing up.

"Yes you do," Frodo laughed.

"He can keep his secret if he wants," Merry said. Then he grinned at Frodo. "I don’t care what he’s building any more than you care why he’s sleeping in the barn."

Frodo groaned. "I liked it so much more when Pippin simply rattled off everything that was on his mind.  I miss those days."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Now, remember what I showed you," Sam said. "You always dip the brush into the shellac gently and don’t get too much on the brush at one time or the shellac will drip. Kind of rake the brush against the side o’ the pail and that’ll get some of the extra off of it."

Pippin nodded, brush in hand.

"Just do one side of the board and then let them dry ‘till after second breakfast and we’ll check ‘em." Sam didn’t think that Pippin would shellac one side of the board and then flip it over but he thought it best to cover everything just in case. The lad had a way of doing the most unusual things.

"What are you going to do while I put on the shellac?" Pippin asked curiously.

"I’m goin’ out to Mister Frodo’s garden and dig up a few potatoes for him," Sam said. "He’ll be needin’ more for today."

"I’ll do a really good job and I’ll be very careful, Sam," Pippin said as he lowered his brush into the shellac.

"I know you will, Master Pippin," Sam said. As he turned and left the barn he could hear Master Pippin humming to himself. Sam smiled and headed for the garden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pippin fidgeted anxiously as Sam examined the nearly dry boards which would soon be the bottom and the back of the wheelbarrow. Both were laid out on the table and coated with a shiny layer of shellac. Sam was looking at them and checking to see that they were evenly coated while Pippin waited nervously, brush still in hand.

Sam bent down even with the table and looked at the boards critically. "I tried really hard and I didn’t get the brush too full of shellac, Sam," Pippin said quickly. "I raked it against the pail and I only painted one side of everything. I was very careful. Not like I usually am, but just like you said."

Sam raised up and smiled. "They look just fine, Master Pippin," Sam said. "How many of the pieces did you get done a’fore comin’ in for breakfast?"

"Oh, I did one coat on one side of all of them," Pippin said proudly. "I remembered what you said and I didn’t paint the wheels. I put them over there in the other wheelbarrow so that if I did spill anything, which I didn’t, that I wouldn’t spill it on the wheels." He grinned and waved the brush toward the wheelbarrow which belonged to Frodo that they had been using as a model for the one that Pippin was trying to build.

Sam glanced around the barn and then looked back at Pippin He scratched his head. "Well, you done a right nice job on these two pieces here that are on the table, but I don’t see the other pieces," Sam said. "I must be over-lookin’ ‘em. Where did you put ‘em?"

Pippin’s smile broadened. "There wasn’t room on the table to lay all of them flat and still have room for the shellac and so I had to spread them out," Pippin explained. "I put the ones that I was working on, on the table because it was much easier to paint them up here and then as I would finish with them, I would get them carefully by the edges and move them. I was ever so careful not to get any finger prints on them, Sam. I checked them good after I moved them."

Sam sighed. Sometimes the lad didn’t seem to get the full meaning of the question. "Where did you lay them?" he tried again.

Pippin grinned. "I fixed a spot just especially for them so that nothing would disturb them," he said proudly.

"Where?" Sam asked trying sound casual and not allow the frustration that he was beginning to feel to show in his tone of voice.

Pippin turned to face him suddenly and somehow managed to strike him right in the forehead with the paint brush that he had been waving about. Pippin let out a tiny squeak and let go of the brush in surprise. His eyes widened as the brush stuck to Sam’s forehead.

Sam reached up and pulled the brush off of his forehead and looked over at Pippin. "Best get me a rag from over in the rag box," Sam sighed.

"I’m sorry, Sam," Pippin said nervously. "I didn’t mean to hit you. Are you all right?"

"I’m fine," Sam said tying to smile. "Just hurry over there and get me a rag. I’ll wipe this off with a bit of terpentine and I’ll be right as rain. Now, go on."

Pippin turned and then stopped. "Sam?"

"What?"

"Where is the rag box?" Pippin asked. "I didn’t know we had one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. In fact I never would have thought to-"

"Master Pippin," Sam broke in. "The rag box is just over there where Mister Frodo keeps the extra oats for the pony." He pointed and was about to decide to go over and get them himself when Master Pippin hurried off in the correct direction. Good thing too because Sam could feel some of his hair sticking to his forehead. The sooner he got this mess cleaned up the better.

"Here’s a rag, Sam," Pippin said rushing over and extending it out to Sam. "I can get you some turpentine if you’ll tell me where it is."

"No, that’s fine, Master Pippin," Sam said taking the rag. He wasn’t going to risk Master Pippin pouring out the terpentine. The lad was in an excitable state because of his accident with the brush and would likely spill any liquid that he got hold of now.

Pippin nodded looking worried. "I guess I should have put the brush away, shouldn’t I?"

"Don’t worry," Sam smiled beginning to see the humor in it all. "I'll just go on over and get me some-" his voice broke off and he looked directly at Master Pippin for a minute. He had a feeling that if he looked down at the floor just now that he might lose his temper and he was trying very hard not to do that.

Pippin stared at him for a minute and then said, "Are you all right, Sam?"

"Master Pippin?"

"Yes, Sam?" Pippin asked.

"Exactly where did you put them other boards that you shellacked?" Sam said fearing that he knew the answer now but hoping that he didn’t.

"Well, I," Pippin stopped suddenly and then looked down at Sam’s feet. He swallowed hard and then said in a rather squeaky voice. "I put them down at the bottom of the table. I laid them flat so that the shellac wouldn’t run and I spread them out just so."

Sam nodded. "Master Pippin?"

"Yes?" Pippin asked cringing as if he’d been slapped.

"Am I standin’ on one of ‘em now?" Sam asked his eyes never leaving Pippin’s.

Pippin nodded.

"Then I suspect that you’ll have to get the turpentine because I think the shellac has finished dryin’." Sam looked down at his feet, both of which were stuck fast to one of Pippin’s freshly shellacked boards and sighed.

"Sam?" Pippin said in a very tiny voice.

"Yes?" Sam said tightly.

"Where do we keep the turpentine?" Pippin asked innocently.

TBC

GW   10/02/2005