Mathoms
(for Marigold, though as it is her birthday, she ought to be giving me a gift)

Frodo always gave the best mathoms, delightful toys that had "Bree" stamped on them, and useful little items that the new owners hadn't known they'd needed but quickly discovered they could not live without. He never reused mathoms, and rumors of the wealth the old hobbit had left to young Frodo grew and grew. Frodo used the rumors as an excuse not to give away the ever-growing pile of mathoms at Bag End that by rights he should have regifted long ago. "We can't have hobbits thinking Bilbo's legendary wealth is running out, Sam," he'd say whenever Sam suggested it.

Merry, a popular and wealthy lad, gave mathoms generously on birthdays, but as his parents let him choose the gifts he distributed, young friends and old alike received marbles and tops. He didn't begin discriminating in his gift selection as he aged, and friends learned to expect mathoms representing whatever enterprise Merry was currently engaged in, be it playing cards or yo-yos. "I should like a proper gift just once," Frodo said one year when Merry handed him a "fly-swatter."

"I'm giving you the future," Merry said. "Someday, you'll say you knew me when."

Frodo whacked him with the fly-swatter.

The Gamgees reused old mathoms on birthdays, but as most hobbits did so, it was nothing to be ashamed of. Sam only felt awkward about it when giving a gift to Mr. Bilbo's young cousin, but Master Frodo was so genuinely delighted that Sam couldn't be anxious about the old gift. It was to Frodo's surprise, then, when Sam said one year, "I don't have a gift fit for you, sir. I don't believe there is one."

"Perhaps that is because you have already given me more than any hobbit could ask of another, Sam,"Frodo replied, and embraced him.

Pippin's parents selected lovely gifts to hand out on his birthdays, but Pippin insisted on selecting gifts for special friends himself, so Frodo and Merry and his sisters received pinecones and oddly shaped stones and bizarre little drawings. He continued that practice until he was in his teens, and his special friends were a little sad the first year they received nice, presentable gifts.

To Pippin's bittersweet delight, one year he discovered in Bag End a box containing all his childhood mathoms to Frodo, and he sat on the floor and cried over it, and the cousin he had loved.