Pop, Six, Squish, Uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz...

Part II:Six

***

"Six!" Pippin smiled from ear to ear, patting his friend on the back heartily. "And now seven. Congratulations, Sam!"

Sam laughed, as Merry shook his shoulders, "Samwise, you devil, you!"

"When did you find out?" asked Pippin, still smiling.

"Just this morning," informed Sam, the unmistakable grin of pride in full blossom on his lips, as he bent to throw aside a stick that had fallen into his walkway.

"Guess we’re gonna be playing catch-up, huh Pip?" Merry asked mirthfully, glancing sidelong to his cousin.

"Me?" asked Pippin, pressing his palm to his chest. "I don’t know about you, my dear cousin, but I am expecting to be expecting sextuplets and therefor take no part at all in this ‘catch-up’ you speak of."

Rolling his eyes, Merry slapped the back of Pippin’s head. "Don’t be such an arse Pippin." Pippin glared, then giggled.

"Well," said Sam stoutly, his original chore having been to round up the six of his children that were outside, (and never being one to shirk his duties lightly), he looked about for them, and hollered, "Come'n now all you! Inside, it’s a-gettin’ dark!"

Though, the only response he got for this valiant attempt were six delighted screams and a flurry of skirts and trousers and curls bolting around the yard (and away from him).

"Uh, I don’t think they want to come in," suggested Pippin.

Sam eyed him, nettled, and Pippin raised his brows innocently.

Taking another breath, Sam tried again, "Alright now all of you, Ellie, Frodo-lad, Rosie, Merry, Pippin, Goldilocks! Inside!" Again, the response was simply the same.

Sighing, Sam made for the tree before which sat Goldi, munching gleefully on an apple-tart (surely stolen) from inside.

Merry and Pippin got the hint, and turned in opposite directions to help Sam gather his children.

Goldilocks watched Sam approach, her eyes fixed on him, ready to dart at his next move.

"Now, Goldilocks," Sam admonished, "Be a good lass, and come to yer Da now," he said, moving another cautious step closer. She didn’t flee. A good sign. Sam took another step, carefully, carefully... and soon he was no more than a few feet from her. Feeling confident, he took a long stride – but the moment he put his foot down next to her she burst into a fit of giggles and scampered away. "Goldilocks!" Sam sighed, watching her dart away.

He gathered himself. She could barely crawl, let alone walk, and he would easily catch up to her.

Quickly approaching her, he was about to snatch her off the ground when she crawled under the hedge that ran along the side of the yard. "Goldi!" he shouted in dismay, bending down on his knees to peek under and catch a glimpse of her giggling form scooting further out of reach. He sighed, and paid a glance across the yard. Grimacing, he noticed Merry and Pippin were not having any more luck than he was.

"Pippin!" Merry shouted, "Come here!"

"I am here!" Pippin yelled indignantly from somewhere behind him.

"No," said Merry, "Not you Pippin, him Pippin!" and pointed up the tree Pippin-lad had scampered into. Looking up, eyes widening, "No," Merry instructed in his sternest voice. "Don’t you dare climb up another branch," he pointed a reprimanding finger at the little hellion, "Don’t you-"

"Ow!!"

Merry was interrupted by an exclamation of pain a few feet away, and looked over quickly. Pippin-lad took this to his advantage and scurried up two more branches.

Pippin Took was chasing Merry-lad, who thought it absolutely hysterical to pelt small pebbles at him during the process. "Ow! Ouch! ...ar!....hey! Oww," whined Pippin, "That’s hurts, Merry!" Pippin said, running to catch up to the wayward tyke (and losing).

Merry rolled his eyes from his place at the base of the tree as he watched his cousin, and looked up again to try and coax Pippin-lad down. "Pip, now you come down," he began, but stopped short, finding that Pip-lad had disappeared from the place he last saw him. "Pip?" Merry questioned worriedly, his voice coming to the squeaking summit it was wont to. "Pippin?" he said again, when he got no answer.

Furiously scanning the branches, Merry was rewarded with the sound of a snap! then a whoosh! then a plunk! as an apple came falling down from the shuddering branches (behind which the tree was suspiciously making giggling noises) and hit him square on the noggin.

"Woah!" Merry exclaimed, clutching his head and blinking the stars from his eyes. Shaking away the impending lump he was bound to earn from that little stunt for the moment, he grumbled, narrowing his eyes up at the fiend who hid someplace above him. He set his jaw with a determined grunt, and brushing his hands off, declared, "I’m coming up!"

Sam, on the other side of the yard, was a having quite a time of reaching under the hedge for his daughter – an action that was both fruitless and tiring; and upon seeing her headed for the thorny rose-bushes, slammed himself into them to block her path. Now, full of stings and scratches, he was on his stomach trying to reach her with one outstretched arm as she sat giggling just a few inches from his reach.

Pippin was faring better, with Rose and Elanor already hoisted up into his arms, he was making a run to catch Merry-lad again, who had gone from delightedly throwing small, annoying pebbles to (in Pippin’s opinion) demoniacally throwing fairly large, painful rocks.

Merry – a Brandybuck through and through in his dislike for heights, even for all his Tookishness – stood precariously on a branch outstretched to the point where it was beginning to get thin and wobbly.

"Don’t look down, don’t look down," Merry coached himself, but couldn’t help it, and looked, groaning miserably as he tightened his hold onto the branches around him. "Pippin Gamgee..." Merry began, but thought better of his graveled tone and tried a complacent one instead, "Pippin-lad, dear, would you please..." He looked down again. Gulp. "come off that branch."

He almost thought it had worked when he saw little Pippin Gamgee’s small round face emerge from the leaves above him.

But he should have known better of anyone named ‘Pippin’, as the lad merrily made to step right off the branch, (in agreement to Merry’s request), and so consequently plummet to the ground.

"Argh, no!" Merry shouted to stop him, "Don’t do that. Don’t." Merry sighed, looking up once more to the (he thought) smug face of the little lad, and took a deep breath, preparing to climb higher into the tree.

Mumbling to himself, Merry snaked the branches a little less gracefully than the squirrel-like Pippin-lad as he bounded from branch to branch. But he was stopped dead from his task upon hearing a roar like a small rabid army approach from behind him.

Turning his head to see the rest of the yard, he saw Pippin (Took) chasing a happily screaming Rosie, Frodo-lad, Merry (Gamgee) and Elanor all towards the tree, along with Sam following closely after, chasing a giggling Goldilocks.

In less than another instant, all six Gamgee children where scurrying up the tree, past Merry, on Merry and under Merry, almost giving said Merry a heart attack.

Pippin and Sam stood at the bottom of the tree, looking rather put-out and tired, but Merry clung to the branch, grinning in self-pleasure as he noticed that little Pippin Gamgee was now just an arm’s length away. Reaching out he declared to a startled Pippin, "Gotcha!" but before he could grasp him, he lost his footing, slipping off the branch and falling to the ground with a stupendous: CRASH.

"Merry!" shouted Sam and Pippin simultaneously, rushing to their friend, and all the Gamgee children suddenly hushed, peeking out from the tree at the accident.

Pippin rushed to his cousin, kneeling by his side, lifting his head up, "Are you alright, Merry?"

"Oww..." Merry groaned, and Sam sighed, relived to find that he was no worse for wear.

Getting up, Sam (who was just about fed up with his children today, thankyouverymuch) said, "Now, listen here everyone! Mr Merry could have just up and broke near ev’ry bone in his body, and you’re lucky he didn’t! Now, come down from that there tree, say you’re sorry to him, and-"

"Sam!" another voice sailed across the now dusk-bathed yard from the glowing doorway. It was Rosie. "Why haven’t you gone and called in the children?" There was a pause and Sam looked to Pippin who was helping Merry up (who was insisting he didn’t need help) and they all shared a look that simply said: Argh.

Rosie continued when no response from Sam came, "Come’n in Elanor, Rose, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Goldi! Dinner!"

"Dinner?" all the children said in union, and then: "Yay!" Amidst squeals of celebration and joy, they bolted down from the tree, and off into the house.

"Dinner?" Merry Brandybuck despaired as he watched the little troop bolt into the house at their mother’s word. "All we needed to say was ‘dinner’?" He sighed and threw up his hands.

Pippin almost wanted to laugh, but turned instead to Sam."So, six going on seven, Samwise?" Pippin taunted good-naturedly, still red-faced from exertion. 

"Aye," Sam answered, though a bit more weary than before, "Six going on seven."