Chapter Four - The First Day

“Wake up, Merry!” Esmeralda gently pried away the warm blankets from her son.

Merry rolled over, barely opening his eyes. “Hmm.”

Esmeralda rubbed his back, “Wake up, love, breakfast is waiting.”

Merry opened his eyes. He did a lot of traveling yesterday; nibbling on cold breads, meats and cheeses provided by Miss Ferne all the way to Tuckborough. He deeply inhaled the aroma of sausages and eggs cooking then rolled back over to face his mother, stretching out his arm and leg muscles.

“Come now, sweetie, sit up for me,” she urged him. Merry sat up, still groggy. Esmeralda lifted the nightshirt off her son and dressed him in fresh clothes. Pouring water into the basin, she dampened a washcloth and worked up a lather with the bit of soap lying on the bureau. She then wiped his face and hands then combed his tangled curls.

Merry started to wake up more, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, “Mummy?”

“Hmm?” She handed him a wooden stick with small, stiff bristles, “Here, clean your teeth.”

“Is Dad coming to visit Uncle Paldin, too?” Merry struggled to talk around the bristles in his mouth.

“No, love, he’s staying at home,” she answered him. She then handed him a glass of water and held the basin in front of him. “Rinse.”

A knock was heard on the door, then it opened, “Good morning, Essie!” Then seeing the small boy, “Oh, there’s the baby!”

Esmeralda smiled as she hugged her sister-in-law, “Hullo, Tina! Well, he’s not quite a baby anymore.”

“I know my letters!” Merry chimed in proudly, as if knowing his letters were all the proof in the world that he needed to show he was not a baby anymore.

Esmeralda stood the small boy in front of her as she introduced him to her sister-in-law. “Say hullo to your Aunt Eglantine, Merry.”

Merry had trouble repeating his aunt’s name. “Good morning, Aunt...Aunt...Auntie!” he answered.

Eglantine laughed, lifting the child into her arms, “Aunt Tina will do! The last time that I saw you, you were Pervinca’s age.” Merry gave her a quizzical look. “You’ve never seen your newest cousin, have you?” she asked. Merry shook his head. “You will meet her and your other cousins at breakfast.” She beamed at her little nephew, “You’ve grown so much, Merry. I’ll wager you can read and write already, too!”

“Yes, I can!” he replied triumphantly.

“Little words,” said Esmeralda.

Eglantine held Merry’s chin in a loving display of affection. “You are such a clever little laddie!”

“And I know lots of songs! Frodo learned me lots of them!” Merry started to sing one.

“No, Merry,” Esmeralda covered his mouth as he started the naughty limerick. “Not now, sweetie!” Her face reddened a bit as one particular word escaped his lips before her hand squelched it.

Eglantine raised her eyebrows. “From Frodo, eh? What a marvelous influence that lad is,” she said flatly, then put her nephew down. Taking his small hand in her own, she smiled at him, “Let’s go to breakfast, shall we?”

* * *

Merry put another bite of sausage into his mouth. He kept a guarded eye on the big hobbit at the head of the table. He was a little taller than his own dad with darker hair just as his mother described him back at Brandy Hall. What she didn’t tell him was that his uncle was quick to smile, laugh, and tousle the nearest child’s head. Paladin caught Merry looking at him and winked. Merry didn’t know what to make of all this, so he looked away.

“Pimpernel,” Paladin spoke up, “why don’t you take Merry outside to play when you’re both finished eating?”

“After my chores?” Pimpernel was an odd child; she actually liked her chores--with the exception of shoveling after the animals. At the tender age of eight, she loved every aspect of living on a farm--from helping her father out in the fields, to feeding and caring for the various farm animals. But mostly she liked riding the ponies or swinging from the hay rope that was tied to the highest beam in the barn.

Paladin shrugged his broad shoulders, “You can take him around with you most anywhere, but he’s still too young to be carrying the heavy water buckets and such. Why don’t you show him the baby chicks?”

Pimpernel turned to her cousin, “Have you ever seenchickens before?” Merry shook his head. “Ever seen a pig?” He shook his head again. Pimpernel was genuinely surprised; she thought everyone lived on a farm. “Don’t you have any animals?” Merry only looked at her.

Esmeralda chuckled, answering at her niece’s questions, “We have a few animals kept nearby in the barn, Pimpernel, but he’s never been out to see any of them.”

“I can show him all of ours,” she said. “Then I know of some fun things we can do after.”

Esmeralda was trying to get her shy little Merry to warm up to his cousins--especially his uncle. “That sounds like fun, doesn’t it Merry?”

Merry shook his head. “Merry Brandybuck!” Esmeralda took her son by the hand and led him just outside of the kitchen. She kneeled down to his level and whispered, “You’re not being very nice to your cousin, Merry. She is trying to be friendly with you! You will go outside with her, and you will spend the day with her. You cannot spend your days inside the smial. Then her countenance eased and smiled, “You’ll be all right with Pimpernel. She seems to like you, Merry.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he responded.

She held his chin in her hand, looking into his blue eyes, “You’ll have all sorts of fun today.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Esmeralda disliked pushing Merry into doing something he clearly didn’t want to, but all she had to do was remind herself of all the little obnoxious ditties Frodo had taught him.

When they both returned to the breakfast table, Merry finished off his milk. He then looked at his cousin. “I’m done now.”

Pimpernel drank the rest of her milk then said, “Let’s go.”

The morning sun was bright in Merry’s eyes as he followed his cousin around the barn to the bin that held chicken feed. She used a small pail to scoop some up and then led the way out to the coop.

Merry held his nose as they drew near it. “It smells!” he said.

“You’ll get used to it,” his cousin replied, then threw a fistful of feed before the gathering crowd of rooster and hens. “Try it.” She held out the pail for her younger cousin to scoop up the feed.

Merry grabbed a fistful to throw, but failed to throw it far enough and was bowled over by a bunch of squawking chickens and feeling a few sharp pecks as he tried to fend them off.

“Ouch! Get them off me!” he yelled, running off and patting down his shoulders and arms.

“Let me see you.” Pimpernel walked up and examined Merry’s face and shirt and then laughed, “oh, you’ll live!” She took the pail and scattered the rest of the contents, then said, “follow me.”

Merry followed his cousin to the backside of the barn where Pimpernel told him to wait. A few minutes passed before she returned with a large wheelbarrow. “Jump in!” she shouted, but she could barely control the large barrow herself. Merry was a good sport, so he hopped inside, but his momentum tipped him and the wheelbarrow onto the other side.

“Wait! Let’s try it again.” Pimpernel picked up the barrow to ready it for another run.

“No, thank you,” said Merry, standing up and rubbing his bum. “I don’t think I want to play with the wheelbarrow anymore.”

Pimpernel decided to take it easy on her young cousin for a while. “Let’s finish my chores and then we’ll go see the baby chicks.” They toddled off back inside the barn to finish feeding the animals.