(Written for Marigold's birthday)

PAPA'S PRESENT 

Fam cocked his head.

What kind of music was that, coming from his father’s study? He had heard his father playing his fiddle before, and the little lap harp and the shepherd’s pipes Uncle Legolas had made. And it most certainly was not the big sound the Tookland pipes made. This was a tinkly sound, like that of tiny bells…

He tapped on the door.

“Come in, Fam,” came the Thain’s voice.

Pippin looked up with a smile as his little son entered. “Good morning, Faramir.”

Faramir walked over and gave his father a little kiss on the cheek. Pippin pushed back a bit from his desk and took his little son into his lap. Fam looked with fascination at the contraption on his father’s desk. “What is that?” he asked, green eyes wide.

Pippin lifted the glass lid, and showed Faramir the inside clockwork, and lifted out one of the brass disks pierced with many holes. “This my lad, is a very special music box. Each disk plays a different tune. It’s of Dwarven make, all the way from the Lonely Mountain.”

“Ooh!”

“Yes, this was the gift Cousin Bilbo gave me at his famous last Birthday Party! Do you know, I knew already many of the gifts that the old hobbit was giving away, but I never guessed mine…”

“Tell me about it, please!”

“Well, one spring day, about a year and a half before, Uncle Merry and I were visiting Bag End. Uncle Merry and Cousin Frodo had gone to town on some errands, and Cousin Bilbo was teaching me how to make honeycakes for tea, when who should come knocking at the door-- *

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*A reference to "Ho,Ho, My Lads", co-written with Marigold, and archived here on Stories of Arda.