In The Smoke
By Pearl Took

”Well?”

Pippin and Sam puffed a few more times at their pipes without a word being said.

“Well?” Merry pressed for a response.

“It lit well.” Sam said around his pipe stem. Pippin nodded his agreement.

“That’s all you have to say?” Merry asked a bit despairingly.

“Well,” Sam said, “As they say, one puff’ll be enough if the weed lights rough."

Merry looked somewhat placated. “True enough. But is that all you can say?”

“Draw’s well.” Pippin muttered.

“That’s more to do with the pipe than the weed, Pippin.” You could almost hear Merry add, “you goose” to the end of the comment.

“Not so, Merry. I had some stuff once with a smoke as thick as treacle that nearly flowed down from the bowl. ‘Twas near impossible to draw and you know, hard to draw is a flaw.”

“All right, all right!” Merry was getting quite impatient. He was starting to suspect that his dear cousin and friend were dragging this along on purpose. “But what about it? What do you say, yes or no?”

“It does have a rather different flavor, Merry,” said Pip. “Not unpleasant, mind. It’s quite pleasant, just different.”

“Of course it’s different. I couldn’t very well say it’s a new variety of pipe weed if it weren’t different from the others.”

“Mint,” said Sam.

“Exactly!” Merry beamed for a moment but his broad smile quickly faded. “But what do you think of it?”

Sam and Pippin looked at each other and simultaneously said, “Yes.”

“You like it, then?” Merry pressed for a more thorough response.

“Yes, I do,” Sam said, smiling.

“Me too,” Pippin said tipping his head to his cousin while saluting Merry with his pipe. “Has it a name? Perhaps something like Merry’s Minty Weed? Master’s Own? Brandybuck Best?”

“Emerald Glory,” Merry said, suddenly sounding a bit shy.

“Emerald Glory?” His two friends said together.

“Yes.”

Sam and Pippin each raised an eyebrow at Merry.

Merry sighed a bit and blushed as he shrugged his shoulders. “After my mother and the beautiful green of the plains of Rohan and Estella’s favorite gem.”

Pippin and Sam drew deeply on their pipes and nodded.

“Well named, dear cousin.”

“Right and properly done, Merry.”

And so it is called to this very day in the shops of the Shire and throughout the realm of the King.