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A Shire Sketchbook  by Baggins Babe

       "Merry? I'm hungry!"

       Meriadoc Brandybuck surveyed his cousin for a moment. "You're always hungry. How long since lunch?"

       "What does that have to do with it? I'm too hungry to concentrate on all this." He pushed the papers away in an impatient gesture. Some fluttered on to the patterned rug. Merry sighed, tutted and set them back on the desk again. "And don't tut like that! You're turning into a boring old gaffer! I vote we raid the pantry." He bounced up and hurried round the desk, his green eyes sparkling with excitement at the prospect of adventure.

       "You'll get into trouble......... Oh, what's the use?" Merry flung his hands in the air in a gesture of hopelessness and then followed Pip out of the room. He caught up with the determined Took. "I'm wasting my time telling you you're too old for this sort of thing, aren't I?"

       "Too old?" Pip screeched to a halt so suddenly that Merry cannoned into the back of him.

       "Oooof! What in Arda did you do that for?!"

       "Sssshhh! We're supposed to be quiet if we don't want to be nagged deaf for a week. Do try and be a little more subtle, Merry, there's a dear. I know you're a clod-hopping Brandybuck but do make an effort."

       "Clod-hopping.....? Why, you cheeky Took!"

       "And no, I'm not too old. One is never too old for pantry-raiding." He turned and bestowed a mischievous, beaming smile on his cousin, the sort he'd been giving since he was a babe in arms.

       They reached the pantries without discovery. Pip glanced up and down the corridor before opening the door soundlessly.

       "You stay here and keep watch. I'll go and see what I can find. There's apple pie......" he added in a sing-song voice as his cousin looked doubtful.

       "Apple pie? Well, why didn't you say so? Get in there and do your stuff, Pip."

       Merry hopped impatiently from one foot to the other, glancing round every so often, waiting for the busy tread of one of the maids, or (Valar forbid) Ruby, the housekeeper at Great Smials. He told himself there was no reason to be apprehensive, but there was an undeniable thrill of danger in doing this, which would add to the flavour of the food - when and if Pip ever found it!

       "Any apples?" he asked hopefully.

       "Here!" An apple flew out and clipped Merry on the temple.

       "Ow! Of all the clumsy, cack-handed, addle-pated ..........." He picked up the offending fruit. "I might have known. It's a bloody Pippin!" he muttered.

       "Oh stop moaning and hold these," hissed Pip, shoving various packages and bundles into his arms. He dived back in and emerged with several more items and a jug.

       "Did you find that apple pie?"

       "Yes - with cinnamon and cloves. Can't you smell it? It's under your nose!"

       They hurried back to the study and locked the door before going through the stolen booty.

       "Large pork pie, buttered rolls, cheese.......Not so addle-pated now, am I?" Pip smirked and waved the jug, which was full of thick, rich cream to go with the apple pie.

       "No, I admit it, you're a very smart hobbit. Sorry I called you that."

       "I'm sorry I hit you with the apple. Did it hurt?"

       "No more than the one Strider threw at you outside Bree. That was fun, I must admit, although we're probably a bit too grown-up for it really."

       "Don't you start," said Pippin, munching happily. "Di is always telling me to act my age but I don't know how. How is an eighty-year old hobbit supposed to act? Bilbo stayed sprightly and impish for years after his eightieth birthday."

       "He had the One Ring, Pip - unless there's something you haven't told me!"

       "Anyway, I'm the Thain and they're my blasted pantries. I can raid them if I like, though Scoldie Goldie will have something to say when she finds out. She's as lethal as Rose with that damned tea towel!"

       "You're incorrigible, you know that, don't you?"

       "Wouldn't be me otherwise. I wonder if Frodo still pinches mushrooms? I hope mushrooms grow in Tol Eressa."

       Merry laughed. "I should think Lord Elrond has placed guards on the Elven mushrooms, just in case a rascally Baggins tries a spot of raiding."

       Pip found two glasses and a bottle of fine wine in the bookcase. "Let's raise a glass to the dear lad. It's the Baggins birthday next week." He pushed a glass across the desk. "To Frodo - and Bilbo, wherever he is."

       "To Frodo! Happy birthday, dear heart."

       "Here's to us too, Mer. To pantry-raiding, mushroom stealing and pipe-smoking. May we never be too old for any of it!"

       "Not much danger of that," said Merry, and bit into his apple pie.

 





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