WHISPERS OF THE RING
A Hard Day’s Work pt.III“Miss Aidline is such a sweet dear,” Pippin whispered to Merry. “She certainly didn’t get it from her father.”
“Hush, Pippin! He’s going to chuck things at us again,” Merry hissed back. On his forehead was a big, nasty, swelling bruise that was beginning to turn purple. “That man has the eyes of a hawk and the ears of an owl.”
A corncob flew past them and thudded into the soft soil. “Shaddup and work! I’ll not be paying you for your idle chatter!” Farmer Ghead threw another ear of corn in their direction then stomped off down the row. “I’ll expect the bins to be full before evening!”
Merry and Pippin stuck out their tongues at his retreating back. He turned around suddenly and Pippin nearly bit his tongue off in his haste to look busy. “And don’t think I don’t know about the sticky fingers of the little people! I’ve seen it first hand!”
They waited until he had worked his way to the other side of the field before they sat down in an exhausted heap.
“What a horrible man!” Pippin exclaimed as he worked a basket as large as he was off of his back. “Does he really expect us to fill those big bins he’s got? They must hold a winter’s supply! We’ve only been out here for four hours, Merry! Even if we had started in the morning, we’d be hard pressed to finish the job!”
Merry remained silent, lost deep in thought.
“Merry, you listening to me? It’s not nice to ignore your friends.” Pippin threw the ear that had been tossed at them in his basket. He watched Merry as he worked.
Suddenly, Merry spoke. “He’s trying to get out of paying us for our help, Pip. He’s set us an impossible task, and when we fail he’ll turn us out with naught in our pockets and his bins full of corn.”
Pippin looked shocked. “But he <I>can’t</I> do that! We’ve got us a deal!”
Merry grabbed Pippin by the shoulders and huddled close. “I know what we promised Frodo, but I’ll be four feet under before I let some Man outfox Meriodac Brandybuck!”
The glitter in Merry’s eyes was very familiar to Pippin. The scant space between them nearly crackled with mischievous energy. Pippin knew they had promised Frodo they would earn some provisions honestly, but really . . . how were they to remain honest when they were being cheated themselves? “What did you have in mind, Merry?” Pippin whispered extra quietly.
“Nothing good for our dear Farmer Ghead, Pip. Nothing good for him at all. . . “
**
Farmer Ghead ran his lit stick in a circular motion over the bowl of his pipe and sucked hard to get the weed inside smoking nicely. The cultivation and use of longbottom leaf was the only good thing those little people had ever done, as far as he was concerned. He chuckled to himself as he recalled the shocked looks on their faces when he had told them he wasn’t paying them for a half done job.
“B-but that’s not fair!” the first one had whined. “We’ve worked hard this afternoon!”
“We can come back tomorrow to finish!” the other had offered.
Ghead smiled at the memory of the desperate looks they had given him. An ear of corn each and a boot to set them on the road had been their payment. He chuckled again and Aidline made a disapproving sound.
“Are you still congratulating yourself, old man?” She sniffed. “You were very mean to those two youngsters.” She stabbed at her needlework and glared at her father.
“Bah!” He shook his pipe stem at her like a finger that scolds a naughty child. “You’d be best off not feeling soft for every ragtag that comes by with a story to tell, Aidline. You didn’t really believe that a bear had eaten their supplies did you? It was obviously a story they concocted to try to get into our house to see what we had worth stealing.”
Aidline shook her head and scowled at her work. “You don’t believe they’ll attempt to steal from us for revenge now, Father? That they might be into your hives at this moment, stealing what will help pay for our winter?”
Ghead’s self-satisfied smile slipped. “I’ll feed them to the pigs if they are!” He roared. “Don’t think I wouldn’t either, Aidline! The pigs will eat anything and Middle-Earth would be better off for the disappearance of two filthy hobbits.”
Aidline dropped her embroidery and stared at her father in horror. “Y-you can’t mean that! That’s horrible! They’re just little folk, they can’t. . . “
“Size means nothing, girl. Don’t trust anything under five feet tall! They’re like rats!”
Aidline stood and faced her father. “How can you say such things about another person? It’s evil!!”
A loud knock at the door interrupted them. “Ghead! Farmer Ghead! The bear is at your honey again!”
“WHAT?” Farmer Ghead roared. “Aidline! Fetch me my staff!”
Aidline quickly scooped up his heavy staff and gave it to him. He rushed out the door and into the night.
“Be careful, Father!” Aidline called after him, concerned despite their argument. She closed the door and was surprised when a moment later there was a gentle rap at the door.
**
Merry dashed down the rows of corn until he found the spot he and Pippin had marked earlier in the day. Turning sharply left, he walked ten paces into the corn to where they had buried a good pile of ears beneath the loose soil. He was still winded from his run, and luring a bear was much trickier than he had thought it would be. Not to mention stealing a bit of honeycomb with minimum stings. But the stings he was willing to endure for the sake of his pride, and they would heal.
He chuckled to himself as he loaded his burlap sack with the best ears of corn they had picked that day. He could hear Farmer Ghead yelling at the bear on the far side of the field. Then he heard a scream from the house.
A scant handful of minutes later and Pippin was bumping into him.
“Where were you?” Merry hissed. Farmer Ghead’s voice was getting closer to the house as he came to see what had caused his daughter to scream.
Pippin grinned his cheeky grin and held out a tablecloth with its corners tied to turn it into a makeshift sack. “I was collecting our wages. Aidline let me in and I told her I was there to fetch our wages. She said she felt sorry for us and helped me fill up!”
Merry finished stuffing his sack and tied the top tight. “What was the scream then?” He asked the still grinning Pippin.
“I stole me a kiss,” he replied with a laugh.
“YOU NO GOOD THEIVES! I’LL GET YOU!” Farmer Ghead was <b>much</b> closer than they thought he should be.
“He’s onto us, Pip!” Merry exclaimed. “Quick! Into the corn!”
“But, we’ll get lost!” Pippin protested.
“And him too!” Merry added and pushed Pippin ahead of him, deeper into the field.
Pippin pressed forward as fast as he could. Corn stalks and leaves slapped him in the face and neck and dragged at the goods he was carrying. “Ack!” he cried out as he tripped again. “I think I’ll like corn a little less before we see the dawn!”