[Ealasaide]

Seamus was so focused on the response Gil and his friends had to his and Owen's offer of a song that at first he failed to notice the two young hobbits who had come into the common room only a minute or so earlier. It wasn't until he and Owen had returned to their own table with the older of the two hobbits at their heels that he realized someone was there at all. Sitting down in his chair, Seamus turned toward him and, bending forward, placed his hands on his knees. Suddenly, he felt very large indeed.

"Hello, my lad," he said kindly as Shimshin scooted from Seamus’ shoulder to a perch at the back of his neck, directly between the young man’s shoulders. "What can I do for you?" Seamus glanced past the first hobbit to his little companion, who hung back shyly, tracing a line in the floor with his toe.

The older hobbit boy squared his shoulders bravely. "I was wondering, ehm... what's that?" He pointed at Shimshin.

Seamus' wide, sunshiny grin spread over his face once again. "Why that's a monkey!" he exclaimed. "His name is Shimshin and he’s quite a clever little fellow. If you tell me your name, I’ll have him introduce himself. My name, by the way, is Seamus."

“My name’s Willy,” said the boy. He pointed back in the direction of his companion. “And that there’s my brother Nick.” He leaned slightly forward and lowered his voice, although his tone sounded distinctly superior. ”He’s scared.”

“Ohhh!” said Seamus. He leaned farther forward as well and lowered his voice. “You can tell him there’s nothing to be scared of. Neither I, my friend, nor Mr. Shimshin will bite.” He gave the boy a friendly wink.

Willy grinned. He waved his brother to come over, which the little boy did, but very, very slowly with a face full of misgivings.

In the meantime, Seamus knelt down and patted the floor, calling the little monkey by name. Still keeping a firm grip on his last piece of apple, Shimshin climbed down to the floor, where he stood in front of the boy, eying him with a pair of very bright black eyes.

“Shimshin,” said Seamus. “Say hello to Willy and Nick.”

Without letting go of the apple, Shimshin gave a very courtly bow and made a friendly kind of chirping sound in his throat.

Willy let out a peal of delighted laughter. Even Nick seemed to forget his fear for a moment and crept closer. “Did you teach him to do that?” asked Willy.

Seamus shook his head. “No, actually I didn’t. He had a master before us that was not terribly good to him, although he taught him any number of wonderful things. He can even dance, you know.”

“Can he!” exclaimed Willy. “Can you get him to dance for us now?”

Seamus started to reach for his rebec, which was an instrument very close to a violin in design, with the intent of playing a tune. Then, he noticed that not only had Gil and the other hobbits gone outside to begin setting up for the handfasting, but Owen had gone as well. His face fell. He had promised to help the hobbits with setting up the tables for the party and couldn’t - in good conscience - sit about fiddling for monkeys and children while everyone else worked. Regretfully, he shook his head.

“No, we can’t right now. There’s too much to be done to get ready for the party.” He gave them a friendly smile. “I’m sure you can help out if you like! Maybe when we’ve done all we can do there will be time for a quick tune. Okay?”

Seeing that the boys looked deeply disappointed, Seamus decided to give them one more thing to think about. “Perhaps while I’m working, you can keep an eye on Shimshin for me. If he leaves my shoulder, he’ll need some good eyes watching him to see that he doesn’t get into any mischief.” Seamus let his voice drop to a conspiratorial whisper. “He used to belong to a pirate, you know.”

With that, Seamus picked Shimshin up and put him back on his shoulder before going outside to help Owen and the hobbits with the party set up. Soon, he was caught up in the work, surrounded Gil and his bunch, who worked as industriously as dwarves while keeping up a steady stream of laughter and jokes. A young hobbit lady soon joined them, as well. After making the unexpected acquaintance of Shimshin, she inquired with Gil about playing her pennywhistle with the band. Seamus wondered if perhaps she was the one who had removed the notice on the gate.... not that it mattered. Nonetheless, he resolved to ask her about it later, to satisfy his curiosity, if nothing else.