Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday,
Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of
Sanders.
("What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin. "It
means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it."
"Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin.
"Now I am," said a growly voice.
"Then I will go on," said I.)
One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the
middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large
oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.
Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head
between his paws and began to think.
First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means
something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and
buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise,
somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a
buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee."
Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason
for being a bee that I know of is making honey."
And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making
honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.
He climbed and he climbed and he climbed and as he climbed he sang
a little song to himself. It went like this:
Isn't it funny
How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?
Then he climbed a little further... and a little further ... and
then just a little further. By that time he had thought of another song.
It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.
And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.
He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a
Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on that
branch ...
Crack!
"Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branch below
him.
"If only I hadn't -- " he said, as he bounced twenty feet on to
the next branch.
"You see, what I meant to do," he explained, as he turned
head-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty feet below, "what
I meant to do -- "
"Of course, it was rather -- " he admitted, as he slithered very
quickly through the next six branches.
* * *
Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put
his paw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: "Honey!"
"But you don't get honey with balloons!"
"I do," said Pooh.
Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before
at the house of your friend Piglet, and you had balloons at the party. You
had had a big green balloon; and one of Rabbit's relations had had a big
blue one, and had left it behind, being really too young to go to a party
at all; and so you had brought the green one and the blue one home with
you.
"Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh. He put his head
between his paws and thought very carefully.
"It's like this," he said. "When you go after honey with a
balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming. Now,
if you have a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the
tree, and not notice you, and if you have a blue balloon, they might think
you were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is:
Which is most likely?"
"Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?" you asked.
"They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never
can tell with bees." He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to
look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them."
"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; and so it
was decided.
Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you took your
gun with you, just in case, as you always did, and Winnie-the-Pooh went to
a very muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he was
black all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big, and
you and Pooh were both holding on to the string, you let go suddenly, and
Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayed there -- level
with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from it.
"Hooray!" you shouted.
"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I
look like?"
"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.
"Not," said Pooh anxiously, " -- not like a small black cloud in a
blue sky?"
"Not very much."
"Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say,
you never can tell with bees."
There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so there he
stayed. He could see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't
quite reach the honey.
After a little while he called down to you.
"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.
"Hallo!"
"I think the bees suspect something!"
"What sort of thing?"
"I don't know. But something tells me that they're suspicious!"
"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?"
"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."
There was another little silence, and then he called down to you
again.
"Christopher Robin!"
"Yes?"
"Have you an umbrella in your house?"
"I think so."
"I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and down with it,
and look up at me every now and then, and say 'Tut-tut, it looks like
rain.' I think, if you did that, it would help the deception which we are
practising on these bees."
Well, you laughed to yourself, "Silly old Bear !" but you didn't
say it aloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for your
umbrella.
"Oh, there you are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon as you
got back to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious. I have discovered
that the bees are now definitely Suspicious."
"Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.
"Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee
to deceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is the Queen Bee from down
there?"
"No."
"A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella,
saying, 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a
little Cloud Song, such as a cloud might sing... Go!"
So, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain,
Winnie-the-Pooh sang this song:
How sweet to be a Cloud
Floating in the Blue!
Every little cloud
Always sings aloud.
How sweet to be a Cloud
Floating in the Blue!
It makes him very proud
To be a little cloud.
The bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them,
indeed, left their nests and flew all round the cloud as it began the
second verse of this song, and one bee sat down on the nose of the cloud
for a moment, and then got up again.
"Christopher -- ow! -- Robin," called out the cloud.
"Yes?"
"I have just been thinking, and I have come to a very important
decision. These are the wrong sort of bees."
"Are they?"
"Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they would make the wrong
sort of honey, shouldn't you?"
"Would they?"
"Yes. So I think I shall come down."
"How?" asked you.
Winnie-the-Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go of the
string, he would fall -- bump -- and he didn't like the idea of that. So
he thought for a long time, and then he said:
"Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with your gun. Have
you got your gun?"
"Of course I have," you said. "But if I do that, it will spoil
the balloon," you said. But if you don't" said Pooh, "I shall have to let
go, and that would spoil me."
When he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very
carefully at the balloon, and fired.
"Ow!" said Pooh.
"Did I miss?" you asked.
"You didn't exactly miss," said Pooh, "but you missed the
balloon."
"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this time you
hit the balloon and the air came slowly out, and Winnie-the-Pooh floated
down to the ground.
* * *
Edward Bear, known to his friends as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for
short, was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to himself.
He had made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing his
Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, as he
stretched up as high as he could go, and then Tra-la-la, tra-la -- oh,
help! -- la, as he tried to reach his toes. After breakfast he had said it
over and over to himself until he had learnt it off by heart, and now he
was humming it right through, properly. It went like this:
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.
Well, he was humming this hum to himself, and walking along gaily,
wondering what everybody else was doing, and what it felt like, being
somebody else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank was
a large hole.
"Aha !" said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.) "If I know anything
about anything, that hole means Rabbit," he said, "and Rabbit means
Company," he said, "and Company means Food and Listening-to-Me-Humming and
such like. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.
So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:
"Is anybody at home?"
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then
silence.
"What I said was, 'Is anybody at home?'" called out Pooh very
loudly.
"No!" said a voice; and then added, "You needn't shout so loud. I
heard you quite well the first time."
"Bother!" said Pooh. "Isn't there anybody here at all?"
"Nobody."
Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a
little, and he thought to himself, "There must be somebody there, because
somebody must have said 'Nobody.'" So he put his head back in the hole,
and said: "Hallo, Rabbit, isn't that you?"
"No," said Rabbit, in a different sort of voice this time.
"But isn't that Rabbit's voice?"
"I don't think so," said Rabbit. "It isn't meant to be."
"Oh!" said Pooh.
He took his head out of the hole, and had another think, and then
he put it back, and said:
"Well, could you very kindly tell me where Rabbit is?"
"He has gone to see his friend Pooh Bear, who is a great friend of
his."
"But this is Me!" said Bear, very much surprised.
"What sort of Me?"
"Pooh Bear."
"Are you sure?" said Rabbit, still more surprised.
"Quite, quite sure," said Pooh.
"Oh, well, then, come in."
So Pooh pushed and pushed and pushed his way through the hole, and
at last he got in.
"You were quite right," said Rabbit, looking at him all over. "It
is you. Glad to see you."
"Who did you think it was?"
"Well, I wasn't sure. You know how it is in the Forest. One can't
have anybody coming into one's house. One has to be careful. What about a
mouthful of something?"
Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o'clock in the
morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and
mugs; and when Rabbit said, "Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" he
was so excited that he said, "Both," and then, so as not to seem greedy,
he added, "But don't bother about the bread, please." And for a long time
after that he said nothing . . . until at last, humming to himself in a
rather sticky voice, he got up, shook Rabbit lovingly by the paw, and said
that he must be going on.
"Must you?" said Rabbit politely.
"Well," said Pooh, "I could stay a little longer if it -- if you --
"and he tried very hard to look in the direction of the larder.
"As a matter of fact," said Rabbit, "I was going out myself
directly."
"Oh well, then, I'll be going on. Good-bye."
"Well, good-bye, if you're sure you won't have any more."
"Is there any more?" asked Pooh quickly.
Rabbit took the covers off the dishes, and said, "No, there
wasn't."
"I thought not," said Pooh, nodding to himself "Well, good-bye. I
must be going on."
So he started to climb out of the hole. He pulled with his front
paws, and pushed with his back paws, and in a little while his nose was
out in the open again ... and then his ears ... and then his front paws
... and then his shoulders ... and then --
"Oh, help!" said Pooh. "I'd better go back."
"Oh, bother!" said Pooh. "I shall have to go on."
"I can't do either!" said Pooh. "Oh, help and bother!"
Now, by this time Rabbit wanted to go for a walk too, and finding
the front door full, he went out by the back door, and came round to Pooh,
and looked at him.
"Hallo, are you stuck?" he asked.
"N-no," said Pooh carelessly. "Just resting and thinking and
humming to myself."
* * *
The Piglet lived in a very grand house in the middle of a beech-tree,
and the beech-tree was in the middle of the forest, and the Piglet lived
in the middle of the house. Next to his house was a piece of broken board
which had: "TRESPASSERS W" on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet
what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name, and had been in the
family for a long time. Christopher Robin said you couldn't be called
Trespassers W, and Piglet said yes, you could, because his grandfather
was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short for
Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost
one -- Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers.
"I've got two names," said Christopher Robin carelessly.
"Well, there you are, that proves it," said Piglet.
One fine winter's day when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front
of his house, he happened to look up, and there was Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh
was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else, and
when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking.
"Hallo!" said Piglet, "what are you doing?"
"Hunting," said Pooh.
"Hunting what?"
"Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very mysteriously.
"Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer
"That's just what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?"
"What do you think you'll answer?"
"I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him. "What do you
see there?"
"Tracks," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little squeak of
excitement. "Oh, Pooh! Do you think it's a -- a -- a Woozle?"
"It may be," said Pooh. "Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. You
never can tell with paw-marks."
With these few words he went on tracking, and Piglet, after watching
him for a minute or two, ran after him. Winnie-the-Pooh had come to a
sudden stop, and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of way.
"What's the matter?" asked Piglet.
"It's a very funny thing," said Bear, "but there seem to be two animals
now. This -- whatever-it-was -- has been joined by another --
whatever-it-is -- and the two of them are now proceeding in company. Would
you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile
Animals?"
Piglet scratched his ear in a nice sort of way, and said that he had
nothing to do until Friday, and would be delighted to come, in case it
really was a Woozle.
"You mean, in case it really is two Woozles," said Winnie-the-Pooh, and
Piglet said that anyhow he had nothing to do until Friday. So off they
went together.
There was a small spinney of larch trees just here, and it seemed as if
the two Woozles, if that is what they were, had been going round this
spinney; so round this spinney went Pooh and Piglet after them; Piglet
passing the time by telling Pooh what his Grandfather Trespassers W had
done to Remove Stiffness after Tracking, and how his Grandfather
Trespassers W had suffered in his later years from Shortness of Breath,
and other matters of interest, and Pooh wondering what a Grandfather was
like, and if perhaps this was Two Grandfathers they were after now, and,
if so, whether he would be allowed to take one home and keep it, and what
Christopher Robin would say. And still the tracks went on in front of
them...
Suddenly Winnie-the-Pooh stopped, and pointed excitedly in front of
him. "Look!"
"What?" said Piglet, with a jump. And then, to show that he hadn't been
frightened, he jumped up and down once or twice more in an exercising sort
of way.
"The tracks!" said Pooh. "A third animal has joined the other two!"
"Pooh!" cried Piglet "Do you think it is another Woozle?"
"No," said Pooh, "because it makes different marks. It is either Two
Woozles and one, as it might be, Wizzle, or Two, as it might be, Wizzles
and one, if so it is, Woozle. Let us continue to follow them."
So they went on, feeling just a little anxious now, in case the three
animals in front of them were of Hostile Intent. And Piglet wished very
much that his Grandfather T. W. were there, instead of elsewhere, and
Pooh thought how nice it would be if they met Christopher Robin suddenly
but quite accidentally, and only because he liked Christopher Robin so
much. And then, all of a sudden, Winnie-the-Pooh stopped again, and licked
the tip of his nose in a cooling manner, for he was feeling more hot and
anxious than ever in his life before. There were four animals in front of
them!
"Do you see, Piglet? Look at their tracks! Three, as it were, Woozles,
and one, as it was, Wizzle. Another Woozle has joined them!"
And so it seemed to be. There were the tracks; crossing over each other
here, getting muddled up with each other there; but, quite plainly every
now and then, the tracks of four sets of paws.
"I think," said Piglet, when he had licked the tip of his nose too, and
found that it brought very little comfort, "I think that I have just
remembered something. I have just remembered something that I forgot to do
yesterday and sha'n't be able to do to-morrow. So I suppose I really
ought to go back and do it now."
"We'll do it this afternoon, and I'll come with you," said Pooh.
"It isn't the sort of thing you can do in the afternoon," said Piglet
quickly. "It's a very particular morning thing, that has to be done in the
morning, and, if possible, between the hours of What would you say the
time was?"
"About twelve," said Winnie-the-Pooh, looking at the sun.
"Between, as I was saying, the hours of twelve and twelve five. So,
really, dear old Pooh, if you'll excuse me -- What's that."
Pooh looked up at the sky, and then, as he heard the whistle again, he
looked up into the branches of a big oak-tree, and then he saw a friend of
his.
"It's Christopher Robin," he said.
"Ah, then you'll be all right," said Piglet.
"You'll be quite safe with him. Good-bye," and he trotted off home as
quickly as he could, very glad to be Out of All Danger again.
Christopher Robin came slowly down his tree.
"Silly old Bear," he said, "what were you doing? First you went round
the spinney twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you and you went
round again together, and then you were just going round a fourth time"
"Wait a moment," said Winnie-the-Pooh, holding up his paw.
He sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think.
Then he fitted his paw into one of the Tracks ... and then he scratched
his nose twice, and stood up.
"Yes," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"I see now," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear of No
Brain at All."
"You're the Best Bear in All the World," said Christopher Robin
soothingly.
"Am I?" said Pooh hopefully. And then he brightened up suddenly.
"Anyhow," he said, "it is nearly Luncheon Time."
So he went home for it.
* * *
The Old Grey Donkey, Eeyore, stood by himself in a thistly corner of
the forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought
about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes
he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" --
and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about. So when
Winnie-the-Pooh came stumping along, Eeyore was very glad to be able to
stop thinking for a little, in order to say "How do you do?" in a gloomy
manner to him.
"And how are you?" said Winnie-the-Pooh.
Eeyore shook his head from side to side.
"Not very how," he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all how for a
long time."
"Dear, dear," said Pooh, "I'm sorry about that. Let's have a look at
you." So Eeyore stood there, gazing sadly at the ground, and
Winnie-the-Pooh walked all round him once.
"Why, what's happened to your tail?" he said in surprise.
"What has happened to it?" said Eeyore.
"It isn't there!"
"Are you sure?"
"Well, either a tail is there or it isn't there You can't make a
mistake about it. And yours isn't there!"
"Then what is?"
"Nothing."
"Let's have a look," said Eeyore, and he turned slowly round to the
place where his tail had been a little while ago, and then, finding that
he couldn't catch it up, he turned round the other way, until he came back
to where he was at first, and then he put his head down and looked between
his front legs, and at last he said, with a long, sad sigh, "I believe
you're right."
"Of course I'm right," said Pooh.
"That accounts for a Good Deal," said Eeyore gloomily. "It explains
Everything. No Wonder."
"You must have left it somewhere," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"Somebody must have taken it," said Eeyore.
"How Like Them," he added, after a long silence. Pooh felt that he
ought to say something helpful about it, but didn't quite know what.
So he decided to do something helpful instead.
"Eeyore," he said solemnly, "I, Winnie-the-Pooh, will find your tail
for you."
"Thank you, Pooh," answered Eeyore. "You're a real friend," said he.
"Not like Some," he said.
So Winnie-the-Pooh went off to find Eeyore's tail.
It was a fine spring morning in the forest as he started out. Little
soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in
front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away
suddenly so that the next might have his turn. Through them and between
them the sun shone bravely, and a copse which had worn its firs all the
year round seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which the
beeches had put on so prettily. Through copse and spinney marched Bear;
down open slopes of gorse and heather, over rocky beds of streams, up
steep banks of sandstone into the heather again; and so at last, tired and
hungry, to the Hundred Acre Wood. For it was in the Hundred Acre Wood that
Owl lived.
"And if anyone knows anything about anything," said Bear to himself,
"it's Owl who knows something about something," he said, "or my name's not
Winnie-the-Pooh," he said. "Which it is," he added. "So there you are."
Owl lived at The Chestnuts, and old-world residence of great charm,
which was grander than anybody else's, or seemed so to Bear, because it
had both a knocker and a bell-pull. Underneath the knocker there was a
notice which said:
PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD.
Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:
PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID.
These notices had been written by Christopher Robin, who was the only
one in the forest who could spell; for Owl, wise though he was in many
ways, able to read and write and spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went
all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST.
Winnie-the-Pooh read the two notices very carefully, first from left to
right, and afterwards, in case he had missed some of it, from right to
left. Then, to make quite sure, he knocked and pulled the knocker, and he
pulled and knocked the bell-rope, and he called out in a very loud voice,
"Owl! I require an answer! It's Bear speaking." And the door opened, and
Owl looked out.
"Hallo, Pooh," he said. "How's things?"
"Terrible and Sad," said Pooh, "because Eeyore, who is a friend of
mine, has lost his tail. And he's Moping about it. So could you very
kindly tell me how to find it for him?"
"Well," said Owl, "the customary procedure in such cases is as
follows."
"What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?" said Pooh. "For I am a Bear
of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me."
"It means the Thing to Do."
"As long as it means that, I don't mind," said Pooh humbly.
"The thing to do is as follows. First, Issue a Reward. Then -- "
"Just a moment," said Pooh, holding up his paw. "What do we do to this
-- what you were saying? You sneezed just as you were going to tell me."
"I didn't sneeze."
"Yes, you did, Owl."
"Excuse me, Pooh, I didn't. You can't sneeze without knowing it."
"Well, you can't know it without something having been sneezed."
"What I said was, 'First Issue a Reward'."
"You're doing it again," said Pooh sadly.
"A Reward!" said Owl very loudly. "We write a notice to say that we
will give a large something to anybody who finds Eeyore's tail."
"I see, I see," said Pooh, nodding his head. "Talking about large
somethings," he went on dreamily, "I generally have a small something
about now -- about this time in the morning," and he looked wistfully at
the cupboard in the corner of Owl's parlour; "just a mouthful of condensed
milk or whatnot, with perhaps a lick of honey -- "
"Well, then," said Owl, "we write out this notice, and we put it up all
over the Forest."
"A lick of honey," murmured Bear to himself, "or -- or not, as the case
may be." And he gave a deep sigh, and tried very hard to listen to what
Owl was saying.
But Owl went on and on, using longer and longer words, until at last he
came back to where he started, and he explained that the person to write
out this notice was Christopher Robin.
"It was he who wrote the ones on my front door for me. Did you see
them, Pooh?"
For some time now Pooh had been saying "Yes" and "No" in turn, with his
eyes shut, to all that Owl was saying, and having said, "Yes, yes," last
time, he said "No, not at all," now, without really knowing what Owl was
talking about? "Didn't you see them?" said Owl, a little surprised. "Come
and look at them now."
So they went outside. And Pooh looked at the knocker and the notice
below it, and he looked at the bell-rope and the notice below it, and the
more he looked at the bell-rope, the more he felt that he had seen
something like it, somewhere else, sometime before.
"Handsome bell-rope, isn't it?" said Owl.
Pooh nodded.
"It reminds me of something," he said, "but I can't think what. Where
did you get it?"
"I just came across it in the Forest. It was hanging over a bush, and I
thought at first somebody lived there, so I rang it, and nothing happened,
and then I rang it again very loudly, and it came off in my hand, and as
nobody seemed to want it, I took it home, and..."
"Owl," said Pooh solemnly, "you made a mistake. Somebody did want it."
"Who?"
"Eeyore. My dear friend Eeyore. He was -- he was fond of it."
"Fond of it?"
"Attached to it," said Winnie-the-Pooh sadly.
So with these words he unhooked it, and carried it back to Eeyore; and
when Christopher Robin had nailed it on its right place again, Eeyore
frisked about the forest, waving his tail so happily that Winnie-the-Pooh
came over all funny, and had to hurry home for a little snack of something
to sustain him. And wiping his mouth half an hour afterwards, he sang to
himself proudly:
Who found the Tail?
"I," said Pooh,
"At a quarter to two
(Only it was quarter to eleven really),
I found the Tail!"
* * *
One day, when Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were all
talking together, Christopher Robin finished the mouthful he was eating
and said carelessly: "I saw a Heffalump to-day, Piglet."
"What was it doing?" asked Piglet.
"Just lumping along," said Christopher Robin. "I don't think it saw
me."
"I saw one once," said Piglet. "At least, I think I did," he said.
"Only perhaps it wasn't."
"So did I," said Pooh, wondering what a Heffalump was like.
"You don't often see them," said Christopher Robin carelessly.
"Not now," said Piglet.
"Not at this time of year," said Pooh.
Then they all talked about something else, until it was time for Pooh
and Piglet to go home together. At first as they stumped along the path
which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn't say much to each other; but
when they came to the stream, and had helped each other across the
stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the
heather, they began to talk in a friendly way about this and that, and
Piglet said, "If you see what I mean, Pooh," and Pooh said, "It's just
what I think myself, Piglet," and Piglet said, "But, on the other hand,
Pooh, we must remember," and Pooh said, "Quite true, Piglet, although I
had forgotten it for the moment." And then, just as they came to the Six
Pine Trees, Pooh looked round to see that nobody else was listening, and
said in a very solemn voice: "Piglet, I have decided something.'
"What have you decided, Pooh?"
"I have decided to catch a Heffalump."
Pooh nodded his head several times as he said this, and waited for
Piglet to say "How?" or "Pooh, you couldn't!" or something helpful of that
sort, but Piglet said nothing. The fact was Piglet was wishing that he had
thought about it first.
"I shall do it," said Pooh, after waiting a little longer, "by means of
a trap. And it must be a Cunning Trap, so you will have to help me,
Piglet."
"Pooh," said Piglet, feeling quite happy again now, "I will." And then
he said, "How shall we do it?" and Pooh said, "That's just it. How?" And
then they sat down together to think it out.
Pooh's first idea was that they should dig a Very Deep Pit, and then
the Heffalump would come along and fall into the Pit, and --
"Why?" said Piglet.
"Why what?" said Pooh.
"Why would he fall in?"
Pooh rubbed his nose with his paw, and said that the Heffalump might be
walking along, humming a little song, and looking up at the sky, wondering
if it would rain, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was
half-way down, when it would be too late.
Piglet said that this was a very good Trap, but supposing it were
raining already?
Pooh rubbed his nose again, and said that he hadn't thought of that.
And then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the
Heffalump would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up, and
so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down.... When
it would be too late.
Piglet said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it
was a Cunning Trap.
Pooh was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Heffalump
was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which
had to be thought about, and it was this. Where should they dig the Very
Deep Pit?
Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump
was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.
"But then he would see us digging it," said Pooh.
"Not if he was looking at the sky."
"He would Suspect," said Pooh, "if he happened to look down." He
thought for a long time and then added sadly, "It isn't as easy as I
thought. I suppose that's why Heffalumps hardly ever get caught."
"That must be it," said Piglet.
They sighed and got up; and when they had taken a few gorse prickles
out of themselves they sat down again; and all the time Pooh was saying to
himself, "If only I could think of something!" For he felt sure that a
Very Clever Brain could catch a Heffalump if only he knew the right way to
go about it. "Suppose," he said to Piglet, "you wanted to catch me, how
would you do it?"
"Well," said Piglet, "I should do it like this. I should make a Trap,
and I should put a Jar of Honey in the Trap, and you would smell it, and
you would go in after it, and --"
"And I would go in after it," said Pooh excitedly, "only very carefully
so as not to hurt myself, and I would get to the Jar of Honey, and I
should lick round the edges first of all, pretending that there wasn't any
more, you know, and then I should walk away and think about it a little,
and then I should come back and start licking in the middle of the jar,
and then -- "
"Yes, well never mind about that where you would be, and there I should
catch you. Now the first thing to think of is, What do Heffalumps like? I
should think acorns, shouldn't you? We'll get a lot of -- I say, wake up,
Pooh!"
Pooh, who had gone into a happy dream, woke up with a start, and said
that Honey was a much more trappy thing than Haycorns. Piglet didn't think
so; and they were just going to argue about it, when Piglet remembered
that, if they put acorns in the Trap, he would have to find the acorns,
but if they put honey, then Pooh would have to give up some of his own
honey, so he said, "All right, honey then," just as Pooh remembered it
too, and was going to say, "All right, haycorns." "Honey," said Piglet to
himself in a thoughtful way, as if it were now settled. "I'll dig the pit,
while you go and get the honey."
"Very well," said Pooh, and he stumped off.
As soon as he got home, he went to the larder; and he stood on a chair,
and took down a very large jar of honey from the top shelf. It had HUNNY
written on it, but, just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and
looked at it, and it looked just like honey. "But you never can tell,"
said Pooh. "I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just
this colour." So he put his tongue in, and took a large lick. "Yes," he
said, "it is. No doubt about that. And honey, I should say, right down to
the bottom of the jar. Unless, of course," he said, "somebody put cheese
in at the bottom just for a joke. Perhaps I had better go a little further
. . . just in case . . . in case Heffalumps don't like cheese . . . same
as me. . . . Ah!" And he gave a deep sigh. "I was right. It is honey,
right the way down."
Having made certain of this, he took the jar back to Piglet, and Piglet
looked up from the bottom of his Very Deep Pit, and said, "Got it?" and
Pooh said, "Yes, but it isn't quite a full jar," and he threw it down to
Piglet, and Piglet said, "No, it isn't! Is that all you've got left?" and
Pooh said, "Yes." Because it was. So Piglet put the jar at the bottom of
the Pit, and climbed out, and they went off home together.
"Well, good night, Pooh," said Piglet, when they had got to Pooh's
house. "And we meet at six o'clock to-morrow morning by the Pine Trees,
and see how many Heffalumps we've got in our Trap."
"Six o'clock, Piglet. And have you got any string?"
"No. Why do you want string?"
"To lead them home with."
"Oh! . . . I think Heffalumps come if you whistle."
"Some do and some don't. You never can tell with Heffalumps. Well, good
night!"
"Good night!"
And off Piglet trotted to his house TRESPASSERS W, while Pooh made his
preparations for bed.
Some hours later, just as the night was beginning to steal away, Pooh
woke up suddenly with a sinking feeling. He had had that sinking feeling
before, and he knew what it meant. He was hungry. So he went to the
larder, and he stood on a chair and reached up to the top shelf, and found
-- nothing.
"That's funny," he thought. "I know I had a jar of honey there. A full
jar, full of honey right up to the top, and it had HUNNY written on it, so
that I should know it was honey. That's very funny." And then he began to
wander up and down, wondering where it was and murmuring a murmur to
himself. Like this:
It's very, very funny,
'Cos I know I had some honey:
'Cos it had a label on,
Saying HUNNY,
A goloptious full-up pot too,
And I don't know where it's got to,
No, I don't know where it's gone --
Well, it's funny.
He had murmured this to himself three times in a singing sort of way,
when suddenly he remembered. He had put it into the Cunning Trap to catch
the Heffalump.
"Bother!" said Pooh. "It all comes of trying to be kind to Heffalumps."
And he got back into bed.
But he couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the more he
couldn't. He tried Counting Sheep, which is sometimes a good way of
getting to sleep, and, as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps.
And that was worse. Because every Heffalump that he counted was making
straight for a pot of Pooh's honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he
lay there miserably, but when the five hundred and eighty-seventh
Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, "Very good honey
this, I don't know when I've tasted better," Pooh could bear it no longer.
He jumped out of bed, he ran out of the house, and he ran straight to the
Six Pine Trees.
The Sun was still in bed, but there was a lightness in the sky over the
Hundred Acre Wood which seemed to show that it was waking up and would
soon be kicking off the clothes. In the half-light the Pine Trees looked
cold and lonely, and the Very Deep Pit seemed deeper than it was, and
Pooh's jar of honey at the bottom was something mysterious, a shape and no
more. But as he got nearer lo it his nose told him that it was indeed
honey, and his tongue came out and began to polish up his mouth, ready for
it.
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he got his nose inside the jar. "A Heffalump
has been eating it!" And then he thought a little and said, "Oh, no, I
did. I forgot."
Indeed, he had eaten most of it. But there was a little left at the
very bottom of the jar, and he pushed his head right in, and began to
lick....
By and by Piglet woke up. As soon as he woke he said to himself, "Oh!"
Then he said bravely, "Yes," and then, still more bravely, "Quite so." But
he didn't feel very brave, for the word which was really jiggeting about
in his brain was "Heffalumps."
What was a Heffalump like?
Was it Fierce?
Did it come when you whistled? And how did it come?
Was it Fond of Pigs at all?
If it was Fond of Pigs, did it make any difference what sort of Pig?
Supposing it was Fierce with Pigs, would it make any difference if the
Pig had a grandfather called TRESPASSERS WILLIAM?
He didn't know the answer to any of these questions . . . and he was
going to see his first Heffalump in about an hour from now!
Of course Pooh would be with him, and it was much more Friendly with
two. But suppose Heffalumps were Very Fierce with Pigs and Bears?
Wouldn't it be better to pretend that he had a headache, and couldn't
go up to the Six Pine Trees this morning? But then suppose that it was a
very fine day, and there was no Heffalump in the trap, here he would be,
in bed all the morning, simply wasting his time for nothing. What should
he do?
And then he had a Clever Idea. He would go up very quietly to the Six
Pine Trees now, peep very cautiously into the Trap, and see if there was a
Heffalump there. And if there was, he would go back to bed, and if there
wasn't, he wouldn't.
So off he went. At first he thought that there wouldn't be a Heffalump
in the Trap, and then he thought that there would, and as he got nearer he
was sure that there would, because he could hear it heffalumping about it
like anything.
"Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" said Piglet to himself. And he wanted
to run away. But somehow, having got so near, he felt that he must just
see what a Heffalump was like. So he crept to the side of the Trap and
looked in.
And all the time Winnie-the-Pooh had been trying to get the honey-jar
off his head. The more he shook it, the more tightly it stuck. "Bother!"
he said, inside the jar, and "Oh, help!" and, mostly, "Ow!" And he tried
bumping it against things, but as he couldn't see what he was bumping it
against, it didn't help him; and he tried to climb out of the Trap, but as
he could see nothing but jar, and not much of that, he couldn't find his
way. So at last he lifted up his head, jar and all, and made a loud,
roaring noise of Sadness and Despair ... and it was at that moment that
Piglet looked down.
"Help, help!" cried Piglet, "a Heffalump, a Horrible Heffalump!" and he
scampered off as hard as he could, still crying out, "Help, help, a
Herrible Hoffalump! Hoff, Hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, Holl, a
Hoffable Hellerump!" And he didn't stop crying and scampering until he got
to Christopher Robin's house.
* * *
"Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.
"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good
morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.
"Why, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't.
That's all there is to it."
"Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.
"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."
"Oh!" said Pooh. He thought for a long time, and then asked, "What
mulberry bush is that?"
"Bon-hommy," went on Eeyore gloomily. "French word meaning bonhommy,"
he explained. "I'm not complaining, but There It Is."
Pooh sat down on a large stone, and tried to think this out. It sounded
to him like a riddle, and he was never much good at riddles, being a Bear
of Very Little Brain. So he sang Cottleston Pie instead:
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Eeyore didn't
actually say that he didn't like it, so Pooh very kindly sang the second
verse to him:
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
A fish can't whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
Eeyore still said nothing at all, so Pooh hummed the third verse
quietly to himself:
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
Why does a chicken, I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
"That's right," said Eeyore. "Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go
gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself."
"I am," said Pooh.
"Some can," said Eeyore.
"Why, what's the matter?"
"Is anything the matter?"
"You seem so sad, Eeyore."
"Sad? Why should I be sad? It's my birthday. The happiest day of the
year."
"Your birthday?" said Pooh in great surprise.
"Of course it is. Can't you see? Look at all the presents I have had."
He waved a foot from side to side. "Look at the birthday cake. Candles and
pink sugar."
Pooh looked -- first to the right and then to the left.
"Presents?" said Pooh. "Birthday cake?" said Pooh. "Where?"
"Can't you see them?"
"No," said Pooh.
"Neither can I," said Eeyore. "Joke," he explained. "Ha ha!"
Pooh scratched his head, being a little puzzled by all this.
"But is it really your birthday?" he asked.
"It is."
"Oh! Well, Many happy returns of the day, Eeyore."
"And many happy returns to you, Pooh Bear."
"But it isn't my birthday."
"No, it's mine."
"But you said 'Many happy returns' -- "
"Well, why not? You don't always want to be miserable on my birthday,
do you?"
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
"It's bad enough." said Eeyore, almost breaking down, "being miserable
myself, what with no presents and no cake and no candles, and no proper
notice taken of me at all, but if everybody else is going to be miserable
too -- "
This was too much for Pooh. "Stay there!" he called to Eeyore, as he
turned and hurried back home as quick as he could; for he felt that he
must get poor Eeyore a present of some sort at once, and he could always
think of a proper one afterwards.
Outside his house he found Piglet, jumping up and down trying to reach
the knocker.
"Hallo, Piglet," he said.
"Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet.
"What are you trying to do?"
"I was trying to reach the knocker," said Piglet. "I just came round --
"
"Let me do it for you," said Pooh kindly. So he reached up and knocked
at the door. "I have just seen Eeyore is in a Very Sad Condition, because
it's his birthday, and nobody has taken any notice of it, and he's very
Gloomy -- you know what Eeyore is -- and there he was, and - what a long
time whoever lives here is answering this door." And he knocked again.
"But Pooh," said Piglet, "it's your own house!"
"Oh!" said Pooh. "So it is," he said. "Well, let's go in."
So in they went. The first thing Pooh did was to go to the cupboard to
see if he had quite a small jar of honey left; and he had, so he took it
down.
"I'm giving this to Eeyore," he explained, "as a present. What are you
going to give?"
"Couldn't I give it too?" said Piglet. "From both of us?"
"No," said Pooh. "That would not be a good plan."
"All right, then, I'll give him a balloon. I've got one left from my
party. I'll go and get it now, shall I?"
"That, Piglet, is a very good idea. It is just what Eeyore wants to
cheer him up. Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon."
So off Piglet trotted; and in the other direction went Pooh, with his
jar of honey.
It was a warm day, and he had a long way to go. He hadn't gone more
than half-way when a sort of funny feeling began to creep all over him. It
began at the tip of his nose and trickled all through him and out at the
soles of his feet. It was just as if somebody inside him were saying, "Now
then, Pooh, time for a little something."
"Dear, dear," said Pooh, "I didn't know it was as late as that." So he
sat down and took the top off his jar of honey. "Lucky I brought this with
me," he thought. "Many a bear going out on a warm day like this would
never have thought of bringing a little something with him." And he began
to eat.
"Now let me see," he thought! as he took his last lick of the inside of
the jar, "Where was I going? Ah, yes, Eeyore." He got up slowly.
And then, suddenly, he remembered. He had eaten Eeyore's birthday
present!
"Bother!" said Pooh. "What shall I do? I must give him something."
For a little while he couldn't think of anything. Then he thought:
"Well, it's a very nice pot, even if there's no honey in it, and if I
washed it clean, and got somebody to write 'A Happy Birthday' on it,
Eeyore could keep things in it, which might be Useful." So, as he was
just passing the Hundred Acre Wood, he went inside to call on Owl, who
lived there.
"Good morning, Owl," he said.
"Good morning, Pooh," said Owl.
"Many happy returns of Eeyore's birthday," said Pooh.
"Oh, is that what it is?"
"What are you giving him, Owl?"
"What are you giving him, Pooh?"
"I'm giving him a Useful Pot to Keep Things In, and I wanted to ask you
"
"Is this it?" said Owl, taking it out of Pooh's paw.
"Yes, and I wanted to ask you -- "
"Somebody has been keeping honey in it," said Owl.
"You can keep anything in it," said Pooh earnestly. "It's Very Useful
like that. And I wanted to ask you -- "
"You ought to write 'A Happy Birthday' on it."
"That was what I wanted to ask you," said Pooh. "Because my spelling is
Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the
wrong places. Would you write 'A Happy Birthday' on it for me?"
"It's a nice pot," said Owl, looking at it all round. "Couldn't I give
it too? From both of us?"
"No," said Pooh. "That would not be a good plan. Now I'll just wash it
first, and then you can write on it."
Well, he washed the pot out, and dried it, while Owl licked the end of
his pencil, and wondered how to spell "birthday."
"Can you read, Pooh?" he asked a little anxiously. "There's a notice
about knocking and ringing outside my door, which Christopher Robin wrote.
Could you read it?"
"Christopher Robin told me what it said, and then I could."
"Well, I'll tell you what this says, and then you'll be able to."
So Owl wrote . . . and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA
BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly.
"It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
"Well, actually, of course, I'm saying 'A Very Happy Birthday with love
from Pooh.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing
like that."
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
While all this was happening, Piglet had gone back to his own house to
get Eeyore's balloon. He held it very tightly against himself, so that it
shouldn't blow away, and he ran as fast as he could so as to get to Eeyore
before Pooh did; for he thought that he would like to be the first one to
give a present, just as if he had thought of it without being told by
anybody. And running along, and thinking how pleased Eeyore would be, he
didn't look where he was going . . . and suddenly he put his foot in a
rabbit hole, and fell down flat on his face.
BANG!!!???***!!!
Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that
the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the
Forest part of it had; and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and
he was now alone in the moon or somewhere, and would never see Christopher
Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he hought, "Well, even if I'm in
the moon, I needn't be face downwards all the time," so he got cautiously
up and looked about him.
He was still in the Forest!
"Well, that's funny," he thought. "I wonder what that bang was. I
couldn't have made such a noise just falling down. And where's my balloon?
And what's that small piece of damp rag doing?"
It was the balloon!
"Oh, dear!" said Piglet. "Oh, dear, oh, dearie, dearie, dear! Well,
it's too late now. I can't go back, and I haven't another balloon, and
perhaps Eeyore doesn't like balloons so very much."
So he trotted on, rather sadly now, and down he came to the side of the
stream where Eeyore was, and called out to him.
"Good morning, Eeyore," shouted Piglet.
"Good morning, Little Piglet," said Eeyore. "If it is a good morning,"
he said. "Which I doubt," said he. "Not that it matters," he said.
"Many happy returns of the day," said Piglet, having now got closer.
Eeyore stopped looking at himself in the stream, and turned to stare at
Piglet.
"Just say that again," he said.
"Many hap -- "
"Wait a moment."
Balancing on three legs, he began to bring his fourth leg very
cautiously up to his ear. "I did this yesterday," he explained, as he fell
down for the third time. "It's quite easy. It's so as I can hear better.
... There, that's done it! Now then, what were you saying?" He pushed his
ear forward with his hoof.
"Many happy returns of the day," said Piglet again.
"Meaning me?"
"Of course, Eeyore."
"My birthday?"
"Yes."
"Me having a real birthday?"
"Yes, Eeyore, and I've brought you a present."
Eeyore took down his right hoof from his right ear, turned round, and
with great difficulty put up his left hoof.
"I must have that in the other ear," he said. "Now then."
"A present," said Piglet very loudly.
"Meaning me again?"
"Yes."
"My birthday still?"
"Of course, Eeyore."
"Me going on having a real birthday?"
"Yes, Eeyore, and I brought you a balloon."
"Balloon?" said Eeyore. "You did say balloon? One of those big coloured
things you blow up? Gaiety, song-and-dance, here we are and there we are?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid -- I'm very sorry, Eeyore -- but when I was
running along to bring it you, I fell down."
"Dear, dear, how unlucky! You ran too fast, I expect. You didn't hurt
yourself, Little Piglet?"
"No, but I -- I -- oh, Eeyore, I burst the balloon!"
There was a very long silence.
"My balloon?" said Eeyore at last.
Piglet nodded.
"My birthday balloon?"
"Yes, Eeyore," said Piglet sniffing a little. "Here it is. With -- with
many happy returns of the day." And he gave Eeyore the small piece of damp
rag.
"Is this it?" said Eeyore, a little surprised.
Piglet nodded.
"My present?"
Piglet nodded again.
"The balloon?"
"Yes."
"Thank you, Piglet," said Eeyore. "You don't mind my asking," he went
on, "but what colour was this balloon when it -- when it was a balloon?"
"Red."
"I just wondered. ... Red," he murmured to himself. "My favourite
colour. ... How big was it?"
"About as big as me."
"I just wondered. ... About as big as Piglet," he said to himself
sadly. "My favourite size. Well, well."
Piglet felt very miserable, and didn't know what to say. He was still
opening his mouth to begin something, and then deciding that it wasn't any
good saying that, when he heard a shout from the other side of the river,
and there was Pooh.
"Many happy returns of the day," called out Pooh, forgetting that he
had said it already.
"Thank you, Pooh, I'm having them," said Eeyore gloomily.
"I've brought you a little present," said Pooh excitedly.
"I've had it," said Eeyore.
Pooh had now splashed across the stream to Eeyore, and Piglet was
sitting a little way off, his head in his paws, snuffling to himself.
"It's a Useful Pot," said Pooh. "Here it is. And it's got 'A Very Happy
Birthday with love from Pooh' written on it. That's what all that writing
is. And it's for putting things in. There!"
When Eeyore saw the pot, he became quite excited.
"Why!" he said. "I believe my Balloon will just go into that Pot!"
"Oh, no, Eeyore," said Pooh. "Balloons are much too big to go into
Pots. What you do with a balloon is, you hold the balloon "
"Not mine," said Eeyore proudly. "Look, Piglet!" And as Piglet looked
sorrowfully round, Eeyore picked the balloon up with his teeth, and placed
it carefully in the pot; picked it out and put it on the ground; and then
picked it up again and put it carefully back.
"So it does!" said Pooh. "It goes in!"
"So it does!" said Piglet. "And it comes out!"
"Doesn't it?" said Eeyore. "It goes in and out like anything."
"I'm very glad," said Pooh happily, "that I thought of giving you a
Useful Pot to put things in."
"I'm very glad," said Piglet happily, "that thought of giving you
something to put in a Useful Pot."
But Eeyore wasn't listening. He was taking the balloon out, and putting
it back again, as happy as could be....
* * *
"The best way," said Rabbit, "would be this. The best way would be to
steal Baby Roo and hide him, and then when Kanga says, 'Where's Baby Roo?'
we say, 'Aha!'"
"Aha!" said Pooh, practising. "Aha! Aha! . . . Of course," he went on,
"we could say 'Aha!' even if we hadn't stolen Baby Roo."
"Pooh," said Rabbit kindly, "you haven't any brain."
"I know," said Pooh humbly.
"We say 'Aha!' so that Kanga knows that we know where Baby Roo is.
'Aha!' means 'We'll tell you where Baby Roo is, if you promise to go away
from the Forest and never come back.' Now don't talk while I think."
Pooh went into a corner and tried saying 'Aha!' in that sort of voice.
Sometimes it seemed to him that it did mean what Rabbit said, and
sometimes it seemed to him that it didn't. "I suppose it's just practice,"
he thought. "I wonder if Kanga will have to practise too so as to
understand it."
"There's just one thing," said Piglet, fidgeting a bit. "I was talking
to Christopher Robin, and he said that a Kanga was Generally Regarded as
One of the Fiercer Animals I am not frightened of Fierce Animals in the
ordinary way, but it is well known that if One of the Fiercer Animals is
Deprived of Its Young, it becomes as fierce as Two of the Fiercer Animals.
In which case 'Aha!' is perhaps a foolish thing to say."
"Piglet," said Rabbit, taking out a pencil, and licking the end of it,
"you haven't any pluck."
"It is hard to be brave," said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're
only a Very Small Animal."
Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said:
"It is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in
the adventure before us."
Piglet was so excited at the idea of being Useful that he forgot to be
frightened any more, and when Rabbit went on to say that Kangas were only
Fierce during the winter months, being at other times of an Affectionate
Disposition, he could hardly sit still, he was so eager to begin being
useful at once.
"What about me?" said Pooh sadly "I suppose I shan't be useful?"
"Never mind, Pooh," said Piglet comfortingly. "Another time perhaps "
"Without Pooh," said Rabbit solemnly as he sharpened his pencil, "the
adventure would be impossible."
"Oh!" said Piglet, and tried not to look disappointed. But Pooh went
into a corner of the room and said proudly to himself, "Impossible without
Me! That sort of Bear."
"Now listen all of you," said Rabbit when he had finished writing, and
Pooh and Piglet sat listening very eagerly with their mouths open. This
was what Rabbit read out:
PLAN TO CAPTURE BABY ROO
1. General Remarks. Kanga runs faster than any of Us, even Me.
2. More General Remarks. Kanga never takes her eye off Baby Roo, except
when he's safely buttoned up in her pocket.
3. Therefore. If we are to capture Baby Roo, we must get a Long Start,
because Kanga runs faster than any of Us, even Me. (See I.)
4. A Thought. If Roo had jumped out of Kanga's pocket and Piglet had
jumped in, Kanga wouldn't know the difference, because Piglet is a Very
Small Animal.
5. Like Roo.
6. But Kanga would have to be looking the other way first, so as not to
see Piglet jumping in.
7. See 2.
8. Another Thought. But if Pooh was talking to her very excitedly, she
might look the other way for a moment.
9. And then I could run away with Roo.
10. Quickly.
11. And Kanga wouldn't discover the difference until Afterwards
Well, Rabbit read this out proudly, and for a little while after he had
read it nobody said anything And then Piglet, who had been opening and
shutting his mouth without making any noise, managed to say very huskily:
"And -- Afterwards?"
"How do you mean?"
"When Kanga does Discover the Difference?"
"Then we all say 'Aha!'"
"All three of us?"
"Yes."
"Oh!"
"Why, what's the trouble, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, "as long as we all three say it. As long as we
all three say it," said Piglet, "I don't mind," he said, "but I shouldn't
care to say 'Aha!' by myself. It wouldn't sound nearly so well. By the
way," he said, "you are quite sure about what you said about the winter
months?"
"The winter months?"
"Yes, only being Fierce in the Winter Months."
"Oh, yes, yes, that's all right. Well, Pooh You see what you have to
do?"
"No," said Pooh Bear. "Not yet," he said? "What do I do?"
"Well, you just have to talk very hard to Kanga? so as she doesn't
notice anything."
"Oh! What about?"
"Anything you like."
"You mean like telling her a little bit of poetry or something?"
"That's it," said Rabbit. "Splendid Now come along."
So they all went out to look for Kanga.
* * *
"Talking of Poetry," said Pooh quickly "have you ever noticed that tree
right over there?"
"Where?" said Kanga. "Now, Roo -- " "Right over there," said Pooh,
pointing behind Kanga's back.
"No," said Kanga. "Now jump in, Roo, dear, and we'll go home."
"You ought to look at that tree right over there," said Rabbit. "Shall
I lift you in, Roo?" And he picked up Roo in his paws.
"I can see a bird in it from here," said Pooh. "Or is it a fish?"
"You ought to see that bird from here," said Rabbit. "Unless it's a
fish."
"It isn't a fish, it's a bird," said Piglet.
"So it is," said Rabbit.
"Is it a starling or a blackbird?" said Pooh.
"That's the whole question," said Rabbit. "Is it a blackbird or a
starling?"
And then at last Kanga did turn her head to look. And the moment that
her head was turned, Rabbit said in a loud voice "In you go, Roo!" and in
jumped Piglet into Kanga's pocket, and off scampered Rabbit, with Roo in
his paws, as fast as he could.
"Why, where's Rabbit?" said Kanga, turning round again. "Are you all
right, Roo, dear?"
Piglet made a squeaky Roo-noise from the bottom of Kanga's pocket.
"Rabbit had to go away," said Pooh. "I think he thought of something he
had to do and see about suddenly."
"And Piglet?"
"I think Piglet thought of something at the same time. Suddenly."
"Well, we must be getting home," said Kanga. "Good-bye, Pooh." And in
three large jumps she was gone.
Pooh looked after her as she went.
"I wish I could jump like that," he thought. "Some can and some can't.
That's how it is."
But there were moments when Piglet wished that Kanga couldn't. Often,
when he had had a long walk home through the Forest, he had wished that he
were a bird; but now he thought jerkily to himself at the bottom of
Kanga's pocket,
this
take
"If is shall
really to
flying I never
it."
And as he went up in the air he said, "Ooooooo!" and as he came down he
said, "Ow!" And he was saying, "Ooooooo-ow, ooooooo-ow, ooooooo-ow" all
the way to Kanga's house.
Of course as soon as Kanga unbuttoned her pocket, she saw what had
happened. Just for a moment, she thought she was frightened, and then she
knew she wasn't: for she felt quite sure that Christopher Robin could
never let any harm happen to Roo. So she said to herself, "If they are
having a joke with me, I will have a joke with them."
"Now then, Roo, dear," she said, as she took Piglet out of her pocket.
"Bed-time."
"Aha!" said Piglet, as well as he could after his Terrifying Journey.
But it wasn't a very good "Aha!" and Kanga didn't seem to understand what
it meant.
"Bath first," said Kanga in a cheerful voice.
"Aha!" said Piglet again, looking round anxiously for the others. But
the others weren't there. Rabbit was playing with Baby Roo in his own
house, and feeling more fond of him every minute, and Pooh, who had
decided to be a Kanga, was still at the sandy place on the top of the
Forest, practising jumps.
"I am not at all sure," said Kanga in a thoughtful voice, "that it
wouldn't be a good idea to have a cold bath this evening. Would you like
that, Roo, dear?"
Piglet, who had never been really fond of baths, shuddered a long
indignant shudder, and said in as brave a voice as he could:
"Kanga, I see that the time has come to speak plainly."
"Funny little Roo," said Kanga, as she got the bath-water ready.
"I am not Roo," said Piglet loudly. "I am Piglet!"
"Yes, dear, yes," said Kanga soothingly. "And imitating Piglet's voice
too! So clever of him," she went on, as she took a large bar of yellow
soap out of the cupboard. "What will he be doing next"
"Can't you see?" shouted Piglet "Haven't you got eyes? Look at me!"
"I am looking, Roo, dear," said Kanga rather severely. "And you know
what I told you yesterday about making faces. If you go on making faces
like Piglet's, you will grow up to look like Piglet -- and then think how
sorry you will be. Now then, into the bath, and don't let me have to speak
to you about it again."
Before he knew where he was, Piglet was in the bath, and Kanga was
scrubbing him firmly with a large lathery flannel.
"Ow!" cried Piglet. "Let me out! I'm Piglet!"
"Don't open the mouth, dear, or the soap goes in," said Kanga. "There!
What did I tell you?"
"You -- you -- you did it on purpose," spluttered Piglet, as soon as he
could speak again . . . and then accidentally had another mouthful of
lathery flannel.
"That's right, dear, don't say anything," said Kanga, and in another
minute Piglet was out of the bath, and being rubbed dry with a towel.
"Now," said Kanga, "there's your medicine, and then bed."
"W-w-what medicine?" said Piglet.
"To make you grow big and strong, dear. You don't want to grow up small
and weak like Piglet, do you? Well, then!"
At that moment there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," said Kanga, and in came Christopher Robin.
"Christopher Robin, Christopher Robin!" cried Piglet. "Tell Kanga who I
am! She keeps saying I'm Roo. I'm not Roo, am I?"
Christopher Robin looked at him very carefully, and shook his head.
"You can't be Roo," he said, "because I've just seen Roo playing in
Rabbit's house."
"Well!" said Kanga. "Fancy that! Fancy my making a mistake like that."
"There you are!" said Piglet. "I told you so. I'm Piglet."
Christopher Robin shook his head again.
"Oh, you're not Piglet," he said. "I know Piglet well, and he's quite a
different colour."
Piglet began to say that this was because he had just had a bath, and
then he thought that perhaps he wouldn't say that, and as he opened his
mouth to say something else, Kanga slipped the medicine spoon in, and then
patted him on the back and told him that it was really quite a nice taste
when you got used to it.
"I knew it wasn't Piglet," said Kanga. "I wonder who it can be."
"Perhaps it's some relation of Pooh's," said Christopher Robin. "What
about a nephew or an uncle or something?"
Kanga agreed that this was probably what it was, and said that they
would have to call it by some name.
"I shall call it Pootel," said Christopher Robin. "Henry Pootel for
short."
And just when it was decided, Henry Pootel wriggled out of Kanga's arms
and jumped to the ground. To his great joy Christopher Robin had left the
door open. Never had Henry Pootel Piglet run so fast as he ran then, and
he didn't stop running until he had got quite close to his house. But when
he was a hundred yards away he stopped running, and rolled the rest of the
way home, so as to get his own nice comfortable colour again.
So Kanga and Roo stayed in the Forest. And every Tuesday Roo spent the
day with his great friend Rabbit, and every Tuesday Kanga spent the day
with her great friend Pooh, teaching him to jump, and every Tuesday Piglet
spent the day with his great friend Christopher Robin. So they were all
happy again.
* * *
"We are all going on an Expedition," said Christopher Robin, as he got
up and brushed himself. "Thank you, Pooh."
"Going on an Expotition?" said Pooh eagerly. "I don't think I've ever
been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?"
"Expedition, silly old Bear. It's got an 'x' in it."
"Oh!" said Pooh. "I know." But he didn't really.
"We're going to discover the North Pole."
"Oh!" said Pooh again. "What is the North Pole?" he asked.
"It's just a thing you discover," said Christopher Robin carelessly,
not being quite sure himself.
"Oh! I see," said Pooh. "Are bears any good at discovering it?"
"Of course they are. And Rabbit and Kanga and all of you. It's an
Expedition. That's what an Expedition means. A long line of everybody.
You'd better tell the others to get ready, while I see if my gun's all
right. And we must all bring Provisions."
"Bring what?"
"Things to eat."
"Oh!" said Pooh happily. "I thought you said Provisions. I'll go and
tell them." And he stumped off.
The first person he met was Rabbit.
"Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens."
"I've got a message for you."
"I'll give it to him."
"We're all going on an. Expotition with Christopher Robin!"
"What is it when we're on it?"
"A sort of boat, I think," said Pooh.
"Oh! that sort."
"Yes. And we're going to discover a Pole or something. Or was it a
Mole? Anyhow we're going to discover it."
"We are, are we?" said Rabbit.
"Yes. And we've got to bring Pro-things to eat with us. In case we want
to eat them. Now I'm going down to Piglet's. Tell Kanga, will you?"
He left Rabbit and hurried down to Piglet's house.
The Piglet was sitting on the ground at the door of his house blowing
happily at a dandelion, and wondering whether it would be this year, next
year, some time or never. He had just discovered that it would be never,
and was trying to remember what "it" was, and hoping it wasn't anything
nice, when Pooh came up.
"Oh! Piglet," said Pooh excitedly, we're going on an Expotition, all of
us, with things to eat. To discover something."
"To discover what?" said Piglet anxiously.
"Oh! just something."
"Nothing fierce?"
"Christopher Robin didn't say anything about fierce. He just said it
had an 'x'."
"It isn't their necks I mind," said Piglet earnestly. "It's their
teeth. But if Christopher Robin is coming I don't mind anything."
In a little while they were all ready at the top of the Forest, and the
Expotition started. First came Christopher Robin and Rabbit, then Piglet
and Pooh; ther Kanga, with Roo in her pocket, and Owl; then Eeyore; and,
at the end, in a long line, all Rabbit's friends-and-relations.
"I didn't ask them," explained Rabbit carelessly. "They just came. They
always do. They can march at the end, after Eeyore."
"What I say," said Eeyore, "is that it's unsettling. I didn't want to
come on this Expo -- what Pooh said. I only came to oblige. But here I am;
and if I am the end of the Expo -- what we're talking about -- then let me
be the end. But if, every time I want to sit down for a little rest, I
have to brush away half a dozen of Rabbit's smaller friends-and-relations
first, then this isn't an Expo -- whatever it is -- at all, it's simply a
Confused Noise. That's what I say."
"I see what Eeyore means," said Owl. "If you ask me --"
"I'm not asking anybody," said Eeyore. "I'm just telling everybody. We
can look for the North Pole, or we can play 'Here we go gathering Nuts and
May' with the end part of an ants' nest. It's all the same to me."
* * *
"Hush!" said Christopher Robin turning round to Pooh, "we're just
coming to a Dangerous Place."
"Hush!" said Pooh turning round quickly to Piglet.
"Hush!" said Piglet to Kanga.
"Hush!" said Kanga to Owl, while Roo said
"Hush!" several times to himself, very quietly.
"Hush!" said Owl to Eeyore.
"Hush!" said Eeyore in a terrible voice to all Rabbit's
friends-and-relations, and "Hush!" they said hastily to each other all
down the line, until it got to the last one of all. And the last and
smallest friend-and-relation was so upset to find that the whole
Expotition was saying "Hush!" to him, that he buried himself head
downwards in a crack in the ground, and stayed there for two days until
the danger was over, and then went home in a great hurry, and lived
quietly with his Aunt ever-afterwards. His name was Alexander Beetle.
They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high rocky
banks, and Christopher Robin saw at once how dangerous it was.
"It's just the place," he explained, "for an Ambush."
"What sort of bush?" whispered Pooh to Piglet. "A gorse-bush?"
"My dear Pooh," said Owl in his superior way, "don't you know what an
Ambush is?"
"Owl," said Piglet, looking round at him severely, "Pooh's whisper was
a perfectly private whisper, and there was no need -- "
"An Ambush," said Owl, "is a sort of Surprise."
"So is a gorse-bush sometimes," said Pooh.
"An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Pooh," said Piglet, "is a sort
of Surprise."
"If people jump out at you suddenly, that's an Ambush," said Owl.
"It's an Ambush, Pooh, when people jump at you suddenly," explained
Piglet.
Pooh, who now knew what an Ambush was, said that a gorse-bush had
sprung at him suddenly one day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken
six days to get all the prickles out of himself.
"We are not talking about gorse-bushes," said Owl a little crossly.
"I am," said Pooh.
They were climbing very cautiously up the stream now, going from rock
to rock, and after they had gone a little way they came to a place where
the banks widened out at each side, so that on each side of the water
there was a level strip of grass on which they could sit down and rest. As
soon as he saw this, Christopher Robin called "Halt!" and they all sat
down and rested.
"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our
Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."
"Eat all our what?" said Pooh.
"All that we've brought," said Piglet, getting to work.
"That's a good idea," said Pooh, and he got to work too.
"Have you all got something?" asked Christopher Robin with his mouth
full.
"All except me," said Eeyore. "As Usual." He looked round at them in
his melancholy way.
I suppose none of you are sitting on a thistle by any chance?"
"I believe I am," said Pooh. "Ow!" He got up, and looked behind him.
"Yes, I was. I thought so."
"Thank you, Pooh. If you've quite finished with it." He moved across to
Pooh's place, and began to eat.
"It doesn't do them any Good, you know, sitting on them," he went on,
as he looked up munching. "Takes all the Life out of them. Remember that
another time, all of you. A little Consideration, a little Thought for
Others, makes all the difference."
As soon as he had finished his lunch Christopher Robin whispered to
Rabbit, and Rabbit said "Yes, yes, of course," and they walked a little
way up the stream together.
"I didn't want the others to hear," said Christopher Robin.
"Quite so," said Rabbit, looking important.
"It's -- I wondered -- It's only -- Rabbit, I suppose you don't know,
What does the North Pole look like?"
"Well," said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers. "Now you're asking me."
"I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten," said Christopher Robin
carelessly.
"It's a funny thing," said Rabbit, "but I've sort of forgotten too,
although I did know once."
"I suppose it's just a pole stuck in the ground?"
"Sure to be a pole," said Rabbit, "because of calling it a pole, and if
it's a pole, well, I should think it would be sticking in the ground,
shouldn't you, because there'd be nowhere else to stick it."
"Yes, that's what I thought."
"The only thing," said Rabbit, "is, where is it sticking?"
"That's what we're looking for," said Christopher Robin.
* * *
It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never
in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old -- three, was it, or
four? -- never had he seen so much rain. Days and days and days.
"If only," he thought, as he looked out of the window, "I had been in
Pooh's house, or Christopher Robin's house, or Rabbit's house when it
began to rain, then I should have had Company all this time, instead of
being here all alone, with nothing to do except wonder when it will stop."
And he imagined himself with Pooh, saying, "Did you ever see such rain,
Pooh?" and Pooh saying, "Isn't it awful, Piglet?" and Piglet saying, "I
wonder how it is over Christopher Robin's way," and Pooh saying, "I should
think poor old Rabbit is about flooded out by this time." It would have
been jolly to talk like this, and really, it wasn't much good having
anything exciting like floods, if you couldn't share them with somebody.
For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in which Piglet had
nosed about so often had become streams, the little streams across which
he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they
had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up
so much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder whether it
would be coming into his bed soon.
"It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a Very Small Animal
Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher Robin and Pooh could escape by
Climbing Trees, and Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape
by Burrowing, and Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by
-- by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by
water and I can't do anything."
It went on raining, and every day the water got a little higher, until
now it was nearly up to Piglet's window... and still he hadn't done
anything.
"There's Pooh," he thought to himself. "Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he
never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.
There's Owl. Owl hasn't exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things. He would
know the Right Thing to Do when Surrounded by Water. There's Rabbit. He
hasn't Learnt in Books, but he can always Think of a Clever Plan. There's
Kanga. She isn't Clever, Kanga isn't, but she would be so anxious about
Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do without thinking about it. And
then there's Eeyore And Eeyore is so miserable anyhow that he wouldn't
mind about this. But I wonder what Christopher Robin would do?"
Then suddenly he remembered a story which Christopher Robin had told
him about a man on a desert island who had written something in a bottle
and thrown it in the sea; and Piglet thought that if he wrote something in
a bottle and threw it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and rescue
him!
He left the window and began to search his house, all of it that wasn't
under water, and at last he found a pencil and a small piece of dry paper,
and a bottle with a cork to it. And he wrote on one side of the paper:
HELP!
PIGLIT (ME)
and on the other side:
IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP
HELP!
Then he put the paper in the bottle, and he corked the bottle up as
tightly as he could, and he leant out of his window as far as he could
lean without falling in, and he threw the bottle as far as he could throw
-- splash! -- and in a little while it bobbed up again on the water; and
he watched it floating slowly away in the distance, until his eyes ached
with looking, and sometimes he thought it was the bottle, and sometimes he
thought it was just a ripple on the water which he was following, and then
suddenly he knew that he would never see it again and that he had done all
that he could do to save himself.
"So now," he thought, "somebody else will have to do something, and I
hope they will do it soon, because if they don't I shall have to swim,
which I can't, so I hope they do it soon." And then he gave a very long
sigh and said, "I wish Pooh were here. It's so much more friendly with
two."
When the rain began Pooh was asleep. It rained, and it rained, and it
rained, and he slept and he slept and he slept. He had had a tiring day.
You remember how he discovered the North Pole; well, he was so proud of
this that he asked Christopher Robin if there were any other Poles such as
a Bear of Little Brain might discover.
"There's a South Pole," said Christopher Robin, "and I expect there's
an East Pole and a West Pole, though people don't like talking about
them." Pooh was very excited when he heard this, and suggested that they
should have an Expotition to discover the East Pole, but Christopher Robin
had thought of something else to do with Kanga; so Pooh went out to
discover the East Pole by himself. Whether he discovered it or not, I
forget; but he was so tired when he got home that, in the very middle of
his supper, after he had been eating for little more than half-an-hour, he
fell fast asleep in his chair, and slept and slept and slept.
Then suddenly he was dreaming. He was at the East Pole, and it was a
very cold pole with the coldest sort of snow and ice all over it. He had
found a bee-hive to sleep in, but there wasn't room for his legs, so he
had left them outside. And Wild Woozles, such as inhabit the East Pole,
came and nibbled all the fur off his legs to make Nests for their Young.
And the more they nibbled, the colder his legs got, until suddenly he woke
up with an Ow! -- and there he was, sitting in his chair with his feet in
the water, and water all round him!
He splashed to his door and looked out....
"This is Serious," said Pooh. "I must have an Escape."
So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it to a broad
branch of his tree, well above the water, and then he climbed down again
and escaped with another pot . . . and when the whole Escape was
finished, there was Pooh sitting on his branch dangling his legs, and
there, beside him, were ten pots of honey....
Two days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his
legs, and there, beside him, were four pots of honey....
Three days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his
legs, and there beside him, was one pot of honey.
Four days later, there was Pooh...
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that Piglet's bottle came
floating past him, and with one loud cry of "Honey!" Pooh plunged into the
water, seized the bottle, and struggled back to his tree again.
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he opened it. "All that wet for nothing. What's
that bit of paper doing?"
He took it out and looked at it.
"It's a Missage," he said to himself, "that's what it is. And that
letter is a 'P,' and so is that, and so is that, and 'P' means 'Pooh,' so
it's a very important Missage to me, and I can't read it. I must find
Christopher Robin or Owl or Piglet, one of those Clever Readers who can
read things, and they will tell me what this missage means. Only I can't
swim. Bother!"
Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Bear of Very Little Brain,
it was a good idea. He said to himself:
"If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a jar floats, I
can sit on the top of it, if it's a very big jar."
So he took his biggest jar, and corked it up.
"All boats have to have a name," he said, "so I shall call mine The
Floating Bear." And with these words he dropped his boat into the water
and jumped in after it.
For a little while Pooh and The Floating Bear were uncertain as to
which of them was meant to be on the top, but after trying one or two
different positions, they settled down with The Floating Bear underneath
and Pooh triumphantly astride it, paddling vigorously with his feet.
* * *
It was the first party to which Roo had ever been, and he was very
excited. As soon as ever they had sat down he began to talk.
"Hallo, Pooh!" he squeaked.
"Hallo, Roo!" said Pooh.
Roo jumped up and down in his seat for a little while and then began
again.
"Hallo, Piglet!" he squeaked.
Piglet waved a paw at him, being too busy to say anything.
"Hallo, Eeyore!" said Roo.
Eeyore nodded gloomily at him. "It will rain soon, you see if it
doesn't," he said.
Roo looked to see if it didn't, and it didn't, so he said "Hallo, Owl!"
-- and Owl said "Hallo, my little fellow," in a kindly way, and went on
telling Christopher Robin about an accident which had nearly happened to a
friend of his whom Christopher Robin didn't know, and Kanga said to Roo,
"Drink up your milk first, dear, and talk afterwards." So Roo, who was
drinking his milk, tried to say that he could do both at once ... and had
to be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwards.
When they had all nearly eaten enough, Christopher Robin banged on the
table with his spoon, and everybody stopped talking and was very silent,
except Roo who was just finishing a loud attack of hiccups and trying to
look as if it was one of Rabbit's relations.
* * *
"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's
the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting to-day?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
* * *