Author: Mews1945
To: Frodo Baggins in Tol Eressea
From: Peregrin Took, Tuckborough, The Tooklands
Dearest Frodo,
We miss you, as always, most especially at this time of the year. Merry and I have decided that we will still celebrate your and Bilbo's birthday. We have enlisted Sam and Rosie and the Cottons in our plan, and the party field is now awash in tables and benches and the new party tree is strung with lights that glow beautifully through the soft dusk of this warm September evening.
Elanor and Frodo lad are playing on the grass with the little wooden horses that I carved for them for my last birthday. Elanor grows more beautiful every day, as golden as the flower for which she is named. Frodo lad is much like his Da, sturdy and round and snub nosed, but there is something in his eyes that reminds me very much of you, dear cousin. Perhaps it is that those eyes seem to see far, or perhaps it is that they are such loving eyes. Your namesake is a gentle child who loves to be hugged and held by his many adopted uncles and aunties, and his Uncle Pippin is quite prepared to oblige him.
Merry is quite taken with Estella Bolger, a spirited lass who is strong enough to manage him, I should think, and to make him happy while she is doing it. I have my eye on someone who has given me to believe that she is not averse to my advances. Who knows? Perhaps your irrepressible Took will someday settle down with a wife and family. I had never thought it possible, but as I grow older, I find that I am wanting more than the things I have always wanted before.
Bag End is well kept and warm and filled with the love of Sam and his Rosie and their little ones, and another one will soon come to add to the warmth and comfort. The Shire is much the same. It prospers, and there are those of us who know that this is because of you, Frodo, and what you sacrificed so that it could be so. And so we miss you, as I said, and would love to see your face once more, but we do not regret that you have gone to the West, where you could find healing and be at peace.
I send you all our dearest love, my Frodo, and wish you a happy birthday, and to Bilbo, also.
Truly,
Your Pippin