4007 lines
149 KiB
Plaintext
4007 lines
149 KiB
Plaintext
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Winnie-the-Pooh
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This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
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of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
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at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
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you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
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before using this eBook.
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Title: Winnie-the-Pooh
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Author: A. A. Milne
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Illustrator: Ernest H. Shepard
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Release date: January 3, 2022 [eBook #67098]
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Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
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Language: English
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Original publication: Canada: McClelland & Stewart, Ltd
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Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, Iona Vaughan, David T. Jones and the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINNIE-THE-POOH ***
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WINNIE-THE-POOH
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_BY A. A. MILNE_
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_JUVENILES_
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When We Were Very Young
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"_The best book of verses for children_ _ever written._"--A. EDWARD
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NEWTON in _The Atlantic Monthly_.
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Fourteen Songs from When We Were Very Young
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Words by A. A. Milne. Music by H. Fraser-Simson. Decorations by
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E. H. Shepard.
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The King's Breakfast
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Words by A. A. Milne. Music by H. Fraser-Simson. Decorations by
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E. H. Shepard
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_ESSAYS_
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Not That It Matters
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The Sunny Side
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If I May
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_MYSTERY STORY_
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The Red House Mystery
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WINNIE-THE-POOH
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BY A. A. MILNE
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McCLELLAND & STEWART, LTD.
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PUBLISHERS - - TORONTO
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Copyright, Canada, 1926
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By McClelland & Stewart, Limited
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Publishers, Toronto
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First Printing, October, 1926
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Second " July, 1927
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Third " December, 1928
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Fourth " December, 1929
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Fifth " March, 1931
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Printed in Canada
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TO HER
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HAND IN HAND WE COME
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CHRISTOPHER ROBIN AND I
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TO LAY THIS BOOK IN YOUR LAP.
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SAY YOU'RE SURPRISED?
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SAY YOU LIKE IT?
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SAY IT'S JUST WHAT YOU WANTED?
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BECAUSE IT'S YOURS----
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BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU.
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INTRODUCTION
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If you happen to have read another book about Christopher Robin, you may
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remember that he once had a swan (or the swan had Christopher Robin, I
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don't know which) and that he used to call this swan Pooh. That was a
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long time ago, and when we said good-bye, we took the name with us, as
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we didn't think the swan would want it any more. Well, when Edward Bear
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said that he would like an exciting name all to himself, Christopher
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Robin said at once, without stopping to think, that he was
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Winnie-the-Pooh. And he was. So, as I have explained the Pooh part, I
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will now explain the rest of it.
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You can't be in London for long without going to the Zoo. There are some
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people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as
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quickly as they can past every cage until they get to the one called
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WAYOUT, but the nicest people go straight to the animal they love the
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most, and stay there. So when Christopher Robin goes to the Zoo, he goes
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to where the Polar Bears are, and he whispers something to the third
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keeper from the left, and doors are unlocked, and we wander through dark
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passages and up steep stairs, until at last we come to the special cage,
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and the cage is opened, and out trots something brown and furry, and
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with a happy cry of "Oh, Bear!" Christopher Robin rushes into its arms.
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Now this bear's name is Winnie, which shows what a good name for bears
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it is, but the funny thing is that we can't remember whether Winnie is
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called after Pooh, or Pooh after Winnie. We did know once, but we have
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forgotten....
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I had written as far as this when Piglet looked up and said in his
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squeaky voice, "What about _Me_?" "My dear Piglet," I said, "the whole
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book is about you." "So it is about Pooh," he squeaked. You see what it
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is. He is jealous because he thinks Pooh is having a Grand Introduction
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all to himself. Pooh is the favourite, of course, there's no denying it,
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but Piglet comes in for a good many things which Pooh misses; because
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you can't take Pooh to school without everybody knowing it, but Piglet
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is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comforting to
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feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or
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twenty-two. Sometimes he slips out and has a good look in the ink-pot,
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and in this way he has got more education than Pooh, but Pooh doesn't
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mind. Some have brains, and some haven't, he says, and there it is.
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And now all the others are saying, "What about _Us_?" So perhaps the
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best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the
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book.
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A. A. M.
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CONTENTS
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I. IN WHICH WE ARE INTRODUCED TO WINNIE-THE-POOH AND SOME
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BEES, AND THE STORIES BEGIN
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II. IN WHICH POOH GOES VISITING AND GETS INTO A TIGHT PLACE
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III. IN WHICH POOH AND PIGLET GO HUNTING AND NEARLY CATCH A
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WOOZLE
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IV. IN WHICH EEYORE LOSES A TAIL AND POOH FINDS ONE
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V. IN WHICH PIGLET MEETS A HEFFALUMP
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VI. IN WHICH EEYORE HAS A BIRTHDAY AND GETS TWO PRESENTS
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VII. IN WHICH KANGA AND BABY ROO COME TO THE FOREST, AND
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PIGLET HAS A BATH
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VIII. IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN LEADS AN EXPOTITION TO THE
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NORTH POLE
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IX. IN WHICH PIGLET IS ENTIRELY SURROUNDED BY WATER
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X. IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN GIVES A POOH PARTY, AND WE SAY
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GOOD-BYE
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WINNIE-THE-POOH
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CHAPTER I
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IN WHICH WE ARE INTRODUCED TO
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WINNIE-THE-POOH AND SOME BEES,
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AND THE STORIES BEGIN
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Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the
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back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows,
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the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there
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really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and
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think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here he
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is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh.
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When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, "But
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I thought he was a boy?"
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"So did I," said Christopher Robin.
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"Then you can't call him Winnie?"
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"I don't."
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"But you said----"
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"He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what '_ther_' means?"
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"Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it
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is all the explanation you are going to get.
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Sometimes Winnie-the-Pooh likes a game of some sort when he comes
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downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in front of the fire
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and listen to a story. This evening----
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"What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.
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"_What_ about a story?" I said.
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"Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"
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"I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?"
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"About himself. Because he's _that_ sort of Bear."
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"Oh, I see."
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"So could you very sweetly?"
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"I'll try," I said.
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So I tried.
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* * * * *
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Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday,
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Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of
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Sanders.
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(_"What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin._
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"_It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived
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under it._"
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_"Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin._
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_"Now I am," said a growly voice._
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_"Then I will go on," said I._)
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One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle
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of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree,
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and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.
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Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between
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his paws and began to think.
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First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something.
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You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing,
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without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's
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making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise
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that _I_ know of is because you're a bee."
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Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for
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being a bee that I know of is making honey."
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And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is
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so as _I_ can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.
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He climbed and he climbed and he climbed, and as he climbed he sang a
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little song to himself. It went like this:
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Isn't it funny
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How a bear likes honey?
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Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
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I wonder why he does?
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Then he climbed a little further ... and a little further ... and
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then just a little further. By that time he had thought of another song.
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It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
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They'd build their nests at the _bottom_ of trees.
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And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
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We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.
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He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a
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Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on that
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branch ...
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_Crack!_
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"Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branch below him.
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"If only I hadn't----" he said, as he bounced twenty feet on to the next
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branch.
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"You see, what I _meant_ to do," he explained, as he turned
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head-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty feet below,
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"what I _meant_ to do----"
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"Of course, it _was_ rather----" he admitted, as he slithered very
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quickly through the next six branches.
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"It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the last
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branch, spun round three times, and flew gracefully into a gorse-bush,
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"it all comes of _liking_ honey so much. Oh, help!"
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He crawled out of the gorse-bush, brushed the prickles from his nose,
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and began to think again. And the first person he thought of was
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Christopher Robin.
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(_"Was that me?" said Christopher Robin in an awed voice, hardly daring
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to believe it._
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"_That was you._"
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_Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger and larger, and
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his face got pinker and pinker._)
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So Winnie-the-Pooh went round to his friend Christopher Robin, who lived
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behind a green door in another part of the forest.
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"Good morning, Christopher Robin," he said.
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"Good morning, Winnie-_ther_-Pooh," said you.
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"I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon about you?"
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"A balloon?"
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"Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder if Christopher Robin
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has such a thing as a balloon about him?' I just said it to myself,
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thinking of balloons, and wondering."
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"What do you want a balloon for?" you said.
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Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put his
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paw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: "_Honey!_"
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"But you don't get honey with balloons!"
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"_I_ do," said Pooh.
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Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before at
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the house of your friend Piglet, and you had balloons at the party. You
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had had a big green balloon; and one of Rabbit's relations had had a big
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blue one, and had left it behind, being really too young to go to a
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party at all; and so you had brought the green one _and_ the blue one
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home with you.
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"Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh.
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He put his head between his paws and thought very carefully.
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"It's like this," he said. "When you go after honey with a balloon, the
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great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming. Now, if you have
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a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and
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not notice you, and, if you have a blue balloon, they might think you
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were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is:
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Which is most likely?"
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"Wouldn't they notice _you_ underneath the balloon?" you asked.
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"They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never can
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tell with bees." He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to look
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like a small black cloud. That will deceive them."
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"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; and so it was
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decided.
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Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you took your gun
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with you, just in case, as you always did, and Winnie-the-Pooh went to a
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very muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he was
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black all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big,
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and you and Pooh were both holding on to the string, you let go
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suddenly, and Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayed
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there--level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from
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it.
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"Hooray!" you shouted.
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"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I look
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like?"
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"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.
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"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "--not like a small black cloud in a blue
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sky?"
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"Not very much."
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"Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, you
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never can tell with bees."
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There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so there he stayed. He
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could see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't quite
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reach the honey.
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After a little while he called down to you.
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"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.
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"Hallo!"
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"I think the bees _suspect_ something!"
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"What sort of thing?"
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"I don't know. But something tells me that they're _suspicious_!"
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"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey."
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"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."
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There was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.
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"Christopher Robin!"
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"Yes?"
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"Have you an umbrella in your house?"
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"I think so."
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"I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and down with it, and
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look up at me every now and then, and say 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain.'
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I think, if you did that, it would help the deception which we are
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practising on these bees."
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Well, you laughed to yourself, "Silly old Bear!" but you didn't say it
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aloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for your
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umbrella.
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"Oh, there you are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon as you got
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back to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious. I have discovered
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that the bees are now definitely Suspicious."
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"Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.
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"Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee to
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deceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is the Queen Bee from down
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there?"
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"No."
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"A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying,
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'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a little
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Cloud Song, such as a cloud might sing.... Go!"
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So, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain,
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Winnie-the-Pooh sang this song:
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How sweet to be a Cloud
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Floating in the Blue!
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Every little cloud
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_Always_ sings aloud.
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"How sweet to be a Cloud
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Floating in the Blue!"
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It makes him very proud
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To be a little cloud.
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The bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them,
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indeed, left their nests and flew all round the cloud as it began the
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second verse of this song, and one bee sat down on the nose of the cloud
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for a moment, and then got up again.
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"Christopher--_ow!_--Robin," called out the cloud.
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"Yes?"
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"I have just been thinking, and I have come to a very important
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decision. _These are the wrong sort of bees._"
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"Are they?"
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"Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they would make the wrong sort
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of honey, shouldn't you?"
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"Would they?"
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"Yes. So I think I shall come down."
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"How?" asked you.
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Winnie-the-Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go of the string,
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he would fall--_bump_--and he didn't like the idea of that. So he
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thought for a long time, and then he said:
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"Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with your gun. Have you
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got your gun?"
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"Of course I have," you said. "But if I do that, it will spoil the
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balloon," you said.
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"But if you _don't_," said Pooh, "I shall have to let go, and that would
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spoil _me_."
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When he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very
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carefully at the balloon, and fired.
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||
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"_Ow!_" said Pooh.
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"Did I miss?" you asked.
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||
"You didn't exactly _miss_," said Pooh, "but you missed the _balloon_."
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"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this time you hit the
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balloon, and the air came slowly out, and Winnie-the-Pooh floated down
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to the ground.
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But his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string of the balloon
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||
all that time that they stayed up straight in the air for more than a
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week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it
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off. And I think--but I am not sure--that _that_ is why he was always
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called Pooh.
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* * * * *
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"Is that the end of the story?" asked Christopher Robin.
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"That's the end of that one. There are others."
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"About Pooh and Me?"
|
||
|
||
"And Piglet and Rabbit and all of you. Don't you remember?"
|
||
|
||
"I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget."
|
||
|
||
"That day when Pooh and Piglet tried to catch the Heffalump----"
|
||
|
||
"They didn't catch it, did they?"
|
||
|
||
"No."
|
||
|
||
"Pooh couldn't, because he hasn't any brain. Did _I_ catch it?"
|
||
|
||
"Well, that comes into the story."
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin nodded.
|
||
|
||
"I do remember," he said, "only Pooh doesn't very well, so that's why he
|
||
likes having it told to him again. Because then it's a real story and
|
||
not just a remembering."
|
||
|
||
"That's just how _I_ feel," I said.
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin gave a deep sigh, picked his Bear up by the leg, and
|
||
walked off to the door, trailing Pooh behind him. At the door he turned
|
||
and said, "Coming to see me have my bath?"
|
||
|
||
"I might," I said.
|
||
|
||
"I didn't hurt him when I shot him, did I?"
|
||
|
||
"Not a bit."
|
||
|
||
He nodded and went out, and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh--_bump,
|
||
bump, bump_--going up the stairs behind him.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER II
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH POOH GOES VISITING AND
|
||
GETS INTO A TIGHT PLACE
|
||
|
||
|
||
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."
|
||
|
||
"Here, give us a paw."
|
||
|
||
Pooh Bear stretched out a paw, and Rabbit pulled and pulled and
|
||
pulled....
|
||
|
||
"_Ow!_" cried Pooh. "You're hurting!"
|
||
|
||
"The fact is," said Rabbit, "you're stuck."
|
||
|
||
"It all comes," said Pooh crossly, "of not having front doors big
|
||
enough."
|
||
|
||
"It all comes," said Rabbit sternly, "of eating too much. I thought at
|
||
the time," said Rabbit, "only I didn't like to say anything," said
|
||
Rabbit, "that one of us was eating too much," said Rabbit, "and I knew
|
||
it wasn't _me_," he said. "Well, well, I shall go and fetch Christopher
|
||
Robin."
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin lived at the other end of the Forest, and when he came
|
||
back with Rabbit, and saw the front half of Pooh, he said, "Silly old
|
||
Bear," in such a loving voice that everybody felt quite hopeful again.
|
||
|
||
"I was just beginning to think," said Bear, sniffing slightly, "that
|
||
Rabbit might never be able to use his front door again. And I should
|
||
_hate_ that," he said.
|
||
|
||
"So should I," said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
"Use his front door again?" said Christopher Robin. "Of course he'll use
|
||
his front door again."
|
||
|
||
"Good," said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
"If we can't pull you out, Pooh, we might push you back."
|
||
|
||
Rabbit scratched his whiskers thoughtfully, and pointed out that, when
|
||
once Pooh was pushed back, he was back, and of course nobody was more
|
||
glad to see Pooh than _he_ was, still there it was, some lived in trees
|
||
and some lived underground, and----
|
||
|
||
"You mean I'd _never_ get out?" said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"I mean," said Rabbit, "that having got _so_ far, it seems a pity to
|
||
waste it."
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin nodded.
|
||
|
||
"Then there's only one thing to be done," he said. "We shall have to
|
||
wait for you to get thin again."
|
||
|
||
"How long does getting thin take?" asked Pooh anxiously.
|
||
|
||
"About a week, I should think."
|
||
|
||
"But I can't stay here for a _week_!"
|
||
|
||
"You can _stay_ here all right, silly old Bear. It's getting you out
|
||
which is so difficult."
|
||
|
||
"We'll read to you," said Rabbit cheerfully. "And I hope it won't snow,"
|
||
he added. "And I say, old fellow, you're taking up a good deal of room
|
||
in my house--_do_ you mind if I use your back legs as a towel-horse?
|
||
Because, I mean, there they are--doing nothing--and it would be very
|
||
convenient just to hang the towels on them."
|
||
|
||
"A week!" said Pooh gloomily. "_What about meals?_"
|
||
|
||
"I'm afraid no meals," said Christopher Robin, "because of getting thin
|
||
quicker. But we _will_ read to you."
|
||
|
||
Bear began to sigh, and then found he couldn't because he was so tightly
|
||
stuck; and a tear rolled down his eye, as he said:
|
||
|
||
"Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a
|
||
Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?"
|
||
|
||
So for a week Christopher Robin read that sort of book at the North end
|
||
of Pooh, and Rabbit hung his washing on the South end ... and in
|
||
between Bear felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer. And at the
|
||
end of the week Christopher Robin said, "_Now!_"
|
||
|
||
So he took hold of Pooh's front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher
|
||
Robin, and all Rabbit's friends and relations took hold of Rabbit, and
|
||
they all pulled together....
|
||
|
||
And for a long time Pooh only said "_Ow!_" ...
|
||
|
||
And "_Oh!_" ...
|
||
|
||
And then, all of a sudden, he said "_Pop!_" just as if a cork were
|
||
coming out of a bottle.
|
||
|
||
And Christopher Robin and Rabbit and all Rabbit's friends and relations
|
||
went head-over-heels backwards ... and on the top of them came
|
||
Winnie-the-Pooh--free!
|
||
|
||
So, with a nod of thanks to his friends, he went on with his walk
|
||
through the forest, humming proudly to himself. But, Christopher Robin
|
||
looked after him lovingly, and said to himself, "Silly old Bear!"
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER III
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH POOH AND PIGLET GO HUNTING
|
||
AND NEARLY CATCH A WOOZLE
|
||
|
||
|
||
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 shan'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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER IV
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH EEYORE LOSES A TAIL
|
||
AND POOH FINDS ONE
|
||
|
||
|
||
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, an 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 in 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!"
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER V
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH PIGLET MEETS A HEFFALUMP
|
||
|
||
|
||
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. There 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 to 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.
|
||
|
||
"Whatever's the matter, Piglet?" said Christopher Robin, who was just
|
||
getting up.
|
||
|
||
"Heff," said Piglet, breathing so hard that he could hardly speak, "a
|
||
Heff--a Heff--a Heffalump."
|
||
|
||
"Where?"
|
||
|
||
"Up there," said Piglet, waving his paw.
|
||
|
||
"What did it look like?"
|
||
|
||
"Like--like----It had the biggest head you ever saw, Christopher Robin.
|
||
A great enormous thing, like--like nothing. A huge big--well, like a--I
|
||
don't know--like an enormous big nothing. Like a jar."
|
||
|
||
"Well," said Christopher Robin, putting on his shoes, "I shall go and
|
||
look at it. Come on."
|
||
|
||
Piglet wasn't afraid if he had Christopher Robin with him, so off they
|
||
went....
|
||
|
||
"I can hear it, can't you?" said Piglet anxiously, as they got near.
|
||
|
||
"I can hear _something_," said Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
It was Pooh bumping his head against a tree-root he had found.
|
||
|
||
"There!" said Piglet. "Isn't it _awful_?" And he held on tight to
|
||
Christopher Robin's hand.
|
||
|
||
Suddenly Christopher Robin began to laugh ... and he laughed ... and he
|
||
laughed ... and he laughed. And while he was still laughing--_Crash_
|
||
went the Heffalump's head against the tree-root, Smash went the jar,
|
||
and out came Pooh's head again....
|
||
|
||
Then Piglet saw what a Foolish Piglet he had been, and he was so ashamed
|
||
of himself that he ran straight off home and went to bed with a
|
||
headache. But Christopher Robin and Pooh went home to breakfast
|
||
together.
|
||
|
||
"Oh, Bear!" said Christopher Robin. "How I do love you!"
|
||
|
||
"So do I," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER VI
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH EEYORE HAS A BIRTHDAY
|
||
AND GETS TWO PRESENTS
|
||
|
||
|
||
Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and
|
||
looked at himself in the water.
|
||
|
||
"Pathetic," he said. "That's what it is. Pathetic."
|
||
|
||
He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed
|
||
across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at
|
||
himself in the water again.
|
||
|
||
"As I thought," he said. "No better from _this_ side. But nobody minds.
|
||
Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is."
|
||
|
||
There was a crackling noise in the bracken behind him, and out came
|
||
Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"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," he began, "and poor 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 thought, "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 ballon----"
|
||
|
||
"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 I 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....
|
||
|
||
* * * * *
|
||
|
||
"And didn't _I_ give him anything?" asked Christopher Robin sadly.
|
||
|
||
"Of course you did," I said. "You gave him--don't you remember--a
|
||
little--a little----"
|
||
|
||
"I gave him a box of paints to paint things with."
|
||
|
||
"That was it."
|
||
|
||
"Why didn't I give it to him in the morning?"
|
||
|
||
"You were so busy getting his party ready for him. He had a cake with
|
||
icing on the top, and three candles, and his name in pink sugar,
|
||
and----"
|
||
|
||
"Yes, _I_ remember," said Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER VII
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH KANGA AND BABY ROO COME
|
||
TO THE FOREST, AND PIGLET HAS A BATH
|
||
|
||
|
||
Nobody seemed to know where they came from, but there they were in the
|
||
Forest: Kanga and Baby Roo. When Pooh asked Christopher Robin, "How did
|
||
they come here?" Christopher Robin said, "In the Usual Way, if you know
|
||
what I mean, Pooh," and Pooh, who didn't, said "Oh!" Then he nodded his
|
||
head twice and said, "In the Usual Way. Ah!" Then he went to call upon
|
||
his friend Piglet to see what _he_ thought about it. And at Piglet's
|
||
house he found Rabbit. So they all talked about it together.
|
||
|
||
"What I don't like about it is this," said Rabbit. "Here are we--you,
|
||
Pooh, and you, Piglet, and Me--and suddenly----"
|
||
|
||
"And Eeyore," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"And Eeyore--and then suddenly----"
|
||
|
||
"And Owl," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"And Owl--and then all of a sudden----"
|
||
|
||
"Oh, and Eeyore," said Pooh. "I was forgetting _him_."
|
||
|
||
"Here--we--are," said Rabbit very slowly and carefully, "all--of--us,
|
||
and then, suddenly, we wake up one morning and, what do we find? We find
|
||
a Strange Animal among us. An animal of whom we have never even heard
|
||
before! An animal who carries her family about with her in her pocket!
|
||
Suppose _I_ carried _my_ family about with me in _my_ pocket, how many
|
||
pockets should I want?"
|
||
|
||
"Sixteen," said Piglet.
|
||
|
||
"Seventeen, isn't it?" said Rabbit. "And one more for a
|
||
handkerchief--that's eighteen. Eighteen pockets in one suit! I haven't
|
||
time."
|
||
|
||
There was a long and thoughtful silence ... and then Pooh, who had
|
||
been frowning very hard for some minutes, said: "_I_ make it fifteen."
|
||
|
||
"What?" said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
"Fifteen."
|
||
|
||
"Fifteen what?"
|
||
|
||
"Your family."
|
||
|
||
"What about them?"
|
||
|
||
Pooh rubbed his nose and said that he thought Rabbit had been talking
|
||
about his family.
|
||
|
||
"Did I?" said Rabbit carelessly.
|
||
|
||
"Yes, you said----"
|
||
|
||
"Never mind, Pooh," said Piglet impatiently.
|
||
|
||
"The question is, What are we to do about Kanga?"
|
||
|
||
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"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_ 1.)
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
Kanga and Roo were spending a quiet afternoon in a sandy part of the
|
||
Forest. Baby Roo was practising very small jumps in the sand, and
|
||
falling down mouse-holes and climbing out of them, and Kanga was
|
||
fidgeting about and saying "Just one more jump, dear, and then we must
|
||
go home." And at that moment who should come stumping up the hill but
|
||
Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Good afternoon, Kanga."
|
||
|
||
"Good afternoon, Pooh."
|
||
|
||
"Look at me jumping," squeaked Roo, and fell into another mouse-hole.
|
||
|
||
"Hallo, Roo, my little fellow!"
|
||
|
||
"We were just going home," said Kanga. "Good afternoon, Rabbit. Good
|
||
afternoon, Piglet."
|
||
|
||
Rabbit and Piglet, who had now come up from the other side of the hill,
|
||
said "Good afternoon," and "Hallo, Roo," and Roo asked them to look at
|
||
him jumping, so they stayed and looked.
|
||
|
||
And Kanga looked too....
|
||
|
||
"Oh, Kanga," said Pooh, after Rabbit had winked at him twice, "I don't
|
||
know if you are interested in Poetry at all?"
|
||
|
||
"Hardly at all," said Kanga.
|
||
|
||
"Oh!" said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Roo, dear, just one more jump and then we must go home."
|
||
|
||
There was a short silence while Roo fell down another mouse-hole.
|
||
|
||
"Go on," said Rabbit in a loud whisper behind his paw.
|
||
|
||
"Talking of Poetry," said Pooh, "I made up a little piece as I was
|
||
coming along. It went like this. Er--now let me see----"
|
||
|
||
"Fancy!" said Kanga. "Now Roo, dear----"
|
||
|
||
"You'll like this piece of poetry," said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
"You'll love it," said Piglet.
|
||
|
||
"You must listen very carefully," said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
"So as not to miss any of it," said Piglet.
|
||
|
||
"Oh, yes," said Kanga, but she still looked at Baby Roo.
|
||
|
||
"_How_ did it go, Pooh?" said Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
Pooh gave a little cough and began.
|
||
|
||
LINES WRITTEN BY A BEAR OF VERY LITTLE BRAIN
|
||
|
||
On Monday, when the sun is hot
|
||
I wonder to myself a lot:
|
||
"Now is it true, or is it not,
|
||
"That what is which and which is what?"
|
||
|
||
On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
|
||
The feeling on me grows and grows
|
||
That hardly anybody knows
|
||
If those are these or these are those.
|
||
|
||
On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
|
||
And I have nothing else to do,
|
||
I sometimes wonder if it's true
|
||
That who is what and what is who.
|
||
|
||
On Thursday, when it starts to freeze
|
||
And hoar-frost twinkles on the trees,
|
||
How very readily one sees
|
||
That these are whose--but whose are these?
|
||
|
||
On Friday----
|
||
|
||
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" said Kanga, not waiting to hear what happened on
|
||
Friday. "Just one more jump, Roo, dear, and then we really _must_ be
|
||
going."
|
||
|
||
Rabbit gave Pooh a hurrying-up sort of nudge.
|
||
|
||
"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 go 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
|
||
would 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 spleak painly."
|
||
|
||
"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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER VIII
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN LEADS
|
||
AN EXPOTITION TO THE NORTH POLE
|
||
|
||
|
||
One fine day Pooh had stumped up to the top of the Forest to see if
|
||
his friend Christopher Robin was interested in Bears at all. At
|
||
breakfast that morning (a simple meal of marmalade spread lightly over a
|
||
honeycomb or two) he had suddenly thought of a new song. It began like
|
||
this:
|
||
|
||
"_Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear._"
|
||
|
||
When he had got as far as this, he scratched his head, and thought to
|
||
himself "That's a very good start for a song, but what about the second
|
||
line?" He tried singing "Ho," two or three times, but it didn't seem to
|
||
help. "Perhaps it would be better," he thought, "if I sang Hi for the
|
||
life of a Bear." So he sang it ... but it wasn't. "Very well, then,"
|
||
he said, "I shall sing that first line twice, and perhaps if I sing it
|
||
very quickly, I shall find myself singing the third and fourth lines
|
||
before I have time to think of them, and that will be a Good Song. Now
|
||
then:"
|
||
|
||
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
|
||
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
|
||
I don't much mind if it rains or snows,
|
||
'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice new nose,
|
||
I don't much care if it snows or thaws,
|
||
'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice clean paws!
|
||
Sing Ho! for a Bear!
|
||
Sing Ho! for a Pooh!
|
||
And I'll have a little something in an hour or two!
|
||
|
||
He was so pleased with this song that he sang it all the way to the top
|
||
of the Forest, "and if I go on singing it much longer," he thought, "it
|
||
will be time for the little something, and then the last line won't be
|
||
true." So he turned it into a hum instead.
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big
|
||
Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was
|
||
going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of
|
||
his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready
|
||
for Anything.
|
||
|
||
"Good-morning, Christopher Robin," he called out.
|
||
|
||
"Hallo, Pooh Bear. I can't get this boot on."
|
||
|
||
"That's bad," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Do you think you could very kindly lean against me, 'cos I keep pulling
|
||
so hard that I fall over backwards."
|
||
|
||
Pooh sat down, dug his feet into the ground, and pushed hard against
|
||
Christopher Robin's back, and Christopher Robin pushed hard against his,
|
||
and pulled and pulled at his boot until he had got it on.
|
||
|
||
"And that's that," said Pooh. "What do we do next?"
|
||
|
||
"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,
|
||
sometime 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; then 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 ant's nest. It's all the same to me."
|
||
|
||
There was a shout from the top of the line.
|
||
|
||
"Come on!" called Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"Come on!" called Pooh and Piglet.
|
||
|
||
"Come on!" called Owl.
|
||
|
||
"We're starting," said Rabbit. "I must go." And he hurried off to the
|
||
front of the Expotition with Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"All right," said Eeyore. "We're going. Only Don't Blame Me."
|
||
|
||
So off they all went to discover the Pole. And as they walked, they
|
||
chattered to each other of this and that, all except Pooh, who was
|
||
making up a song.
|
||
|
||
"This is the first verse," he said to Piglet, when he was ready with it.
|
||
|
||
"First verse of what?"
|
||
|
||
"My song."
|
||
|
||
"What song?"
|
||
|
||
"This one."
|
||
|
||
"Which one?"
|
||
|
||
"Well, if you listen, Piglet, you'll hear it."
|
||
|
||
"How do you know I'm not listening?"
|
||
|
||
Pooh couldn't answer that one, so he began to sing.
|
||
|
||
They all went off to discover the Pole,
|
||
Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all;
|
||
It's a Thing you Discover, as I've been tole
|
||
By Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all.
|
||
Eeyore, Christopher Robin and Pooh
|
||
And Rabbit's relations all went too--
|
||
And where the Pole was none of them knew....
|
||
Sing Hey! for Owl and Rabbit and all!
|
||
|
||
"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 don'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.
|
||
|
||
They went back to the others. Piglet was lying on his back, sleeping
|
||
peacefully. Roo was washing his face and paws in the stream, while Kanga
|
||
explained to everybody proudly that this was the first time he had ever
|
||
washed his face himself, and Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting
|
||
Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopædia and Rhododendron to which
|
||
Kanga wasn't listening.
|
||
|
||
"I don't hold with all this washing," grumbled Eeyore. "This modern
|
||
Behind-the-ears nonsense. What do _you_ think, Pooh?"
|
||
|
||
"Well," said Pooh, "_I_ think----"
|
||
|
||
But we shall never know what Pooh thought, for there came a sudden
|
||
squeak from Roo, a splash, and a loud cry of alarm from Kanga.
|
||
|
||
"So much for _washing_," said Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"Roo's fallen in!" cried Rabbit, and he and Christopher Robin came
|
||
rushing down to the rescue.
|
||
|
||
"Look at me swimming!" squeaked Roo from the middle of his pool, and was
|
||
hurried down a waterfall into the next pool.
|
||
|
||
"Are you all right, Roo dear?" called Kanga anxiously.
|
||
|
||
"Yes!" said Roo. "Look at me sw----" and down he went over the next
|
||
waterfall into another pool.
|
||
|
||
Everybody was doing something to help. Piglet, wide awake suddenly, was
|
||
jumping up and down and making "Oo, I say" noises; Owl was explaining
|
||
that in a case of Sudden and Temporary Immersion the Important Thing was
|
||
to keep the Head Above Water; Kanga was jumping along the bank, saying
|
||
"Are you _sure_ you're all right, Roo dear?" to which Roo, from whatever
|
||
pool he was in at the moment, was answering "Look at me swimming!"
|
||
Eeyore had turned round and hung his tail over the first pool into which
|
||
Roo fell, and with his back to the accident was grumbling quietly to
|
||
himself, and saying, "All this washing; but catch on to my tail, little
|
||
Roo, and you'll be all right"; and, Christopher Robin and Rabbit came
|
||
hurrying past Eeyore, and were calling out to the others in front of
|
||
them.
|
||
|
||
"All right, Roo, I'm coming," called Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"Get something across the stream lower down, some of you fellows,"
|
||
called Rabbit.
|
||
|
||
But Pooh was getting something. Two pools below Roo he was standing with
|
||
a long pole in his paws, and Kanga came up and took one end of it, and
|
||
between them they held it across the lower part of the pool; and Roo,
|
||
still bubbling proudly, "Look at me swimming," drifted up against it,
|
||
and climbed out.
|
||
|
||
"Did you see me swimming?" squeaked Roo excitedly, while Kanga scolded
|
||
him and rubbed him down. "Pooh, did you see me swimming? That's called
|
||
swimming, what I was doing. Rabbit, did you see what I was doing?
|
||
Swimming. Hallo, Piglet! I say, Piglet! What do you think I was doing!
|
||
Swimming! Christopher Robin, did you see me----"
|
||
|
||
But Christopher Robin wasn't listening. He was looking at Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Pooh," he said, "where did you find that pole?"
|
||
|
||
Pooh looked at the pole in his hands.
|
||
|
||
"I just found it," he said. "I thought it ought to be useful. I just
|
||
picked it up."
|
||
|
||
"Pooh," said Christopher Robin solemnly, "the Expedition is over. You
|
||
have found the North Pole!"
|
||
|
||
"Oh!" said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
Eeyore was sitting with his tail in the water when they all got back to
|
||
him.
|
||
|
||
"Tell Roo to be quick, somebody," he said. "My tail's getting cold. I
|
||
don't want to mention it, but I just mention it. I don't want to
|
||
complain but there it is. My tail's cold."
|
||
|
||
"Here I am!" squeaked Roo.
|
||
|
||
"Oh, there you are."
|
||
|
||
"Did you see me swimming?"
|
||
|
||
Eeyore took his tail out of the water, and swished it from side to side.
|
||
|
||
"As I expected," he said. "Lost all feeling. Numbed it. That's what it's
|
||
done. Numbed it. Well, as long as nobody minds, I suppose it's all
|
||
right."
|
||
|
||
"Poor old Eeyore. I'll dry it for you," said Christopher Robin, and he
|
||
took out his handkerchief and rubbed it up.
|
||
|
||
"Thank you, Christopher Robin. You're the only one who seems to
|
||
understand about tails. They don't think--that's what the matter with
|
||
some of these others. They've no imagination. A tail isn't a tail to
|
||
_them_, it's just a Little Bit Extra at the back."
|
||
|
||
"Never mind, Eeyore," said Christopher Robin, rubbing his hardest. "Is
|
||
_that_ better?"
|
||
|
||
"It's feeling more like a tail perhaps. It Belongs again, if you know
|
||
what I mean."
|
||
|
||
"Hullo, Eeyore," said Pooh, coming up to them with his pole.
|
||
|
||
"Hullo, Pooh. Thank you for asking, but I shall be able to use it again
|
||
in a day or two."
|
||
|
||
"Use what?" said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"What we are talking about."
|
||
|
||
"I wasn't talking about anything," said Pooh, looking puzzled.
|
||
|
||
"My mistake again. I thought you were saying how sorry you were about my
|
||
tail, being all numb, and could you do anything to help?"
|
||
|
||
"No," said Pooh. "That wasn't me," he said. He thought for a little and
|
||
then suggested helpfully, "Perhaps it was somebody else."
|
||
|
||
"Well, thank him for me when you see him."
|
||
|
||
Pooh looked anxiously at Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"Pooh's found the North Pole," said Christopher Robin. "Isn't that
|
||
lovely?"
|
||
|
||
Pooh looked modestly down.
|
||
|
||
"Is that it?" said Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"Yes," said Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"Is that what we were looking for?"
|
||
|
||
"Yes," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Oh!" said Eeyore. "Well, anyhow--it didn't rain," he said.
|
||
|
||
They stuck the pole in the ground, and Christopher Robin tied a message
|
||
on to it.
|
||
|
||
NORTH POLE
|
||
|
||
DISCOVERED BY POOH
|
||
|
||
POOH FOUND IT.
|
||
|
||
Then they all went home again. And I think, but I am not quite sure,
|
||
that Roo had a hot bath and went straight to bed. But Pooh went back to
|
||
his own house, and feeling very proud of what he had done, had a little
|
||
something to revive himself.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER IX
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH PIGLET IS ENTIRELY
|
||
SURROUNDED BY WATER
|
||
|
||
|
||
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!
|
||
PIGLET (ME)
|
||
|
||
and on the other side:
|
||
|
||
IT'S ME PIGLET, 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.
|
||
|
||
* * * * *
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin lived at the very top of the Forest. It rained, and it
|
||
rained, and it rained, but the water couldn't come up to _his_ house. It
|
||
was rather jolly to look down into the valleys and see the water all
|
||
round him, but it rained so hard that he stayed indoors most of the
|
||
time, and thought about things. Every morning he went out with his
|
||
umbrella and put a stick in the place where the water came up to, and
|
||
every next morning he went out and couldn't see his stick any more, so
|
||
he put another stick in the place where the water came up to, and then
|
||
he walked home again, and each morning he had a shorter way to walk than
|
||
he had had the morning before. On the morning of the fifth day he saw
|
||
the water all round him, and knew that for the first time in his life he
|
||
was on a real island. Which was very exciting.
|
||
|
||
It was on this morning that Owl came flying over the water to say "How
|
||
do you do," to his friend Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"I say, Owl," said Christopher Robin, "isn't this fun? I'm on an
|
||
island!"
|
||
|
||
"The atmospheric conditions have been very unfavourable lately," said
|
||
Owl.
|
||
|
||
"The what?"
|
||
|
||
"It has been raining," explained Owl.
|
||
|
||
"Yes," said Christopher Robin. "It has."
|
||
|
||
"The flood-level has reached an unprecedented height."
|
||
|
||
"The who?"
|
||
|
||
"There's a lot of water about," explained Owl.
|
||
|
||
"Yes," said Christopher Robin, "there is."
|
||
|
||
"However, the prospects are rapidly becoming more favourable. At any
|
||
moment----"
|
||
|
||
"Have you seen Pooh?"
|
||
|
||
"No. At any moment----"
|
||
|
||
"I hope he's all right," said Christopher Robin. "I've been wondering
|
||
about him. I expect Piglet's with him. Do you think they're all right,
|
||
Owl?"
|
||
|
||
"I expect so. You see, at any moment----"
|
||
|
||
"Do go and see, Owl. Because Pooh hasn't got very much brain, and he
|
||
might do something silly, and I do love him so, Owl. Do you see, Owl?"
|
||
|
||
"That's all right," said Owl. "I'll go. Back directly." And he flew off.
|
||
|
||
In a little while he was back again.
|
||
|
||
"Pooh isn't there," he said.
|
||
|
||
"Not there?"
|
||
|
||
"Has _been_ there. He's been sitting on a branch of his tree outside his
|
||
house with nine pots of honey. But he isn't there now."
|
||
|
||
"Oh, Pooh!" cried Christopher Robin. "Where _are_ you?"
|
||
|
||
"Here I am," said a growly voice behind him.
|
||
|
||
"Pooh!"
|
||
|
||
They rushed into each other's arms.
|
||
|
||
"How did you get here, Pooh?" asked Christopher Robin, when he was ready
|
||
to talk again.
|
||
|
||
"On my boat," said Pooh proudly. "I had a Very Important Missage sent me
|
||
in a bottle, and owing to having got some water in my eyes, I couldn't
|
||
read it, so I brought it to you. On my boat."
|
||
|
||
With these proud words he gave Christopher Robin the missage.
|
||
|
||
"But it's from Piglet!" cried Christopher Robin when he had read it.
|
||
|
||
"Isn't there anything about Pooh in it?" asked Bear, looking over his
|
||
shoulder.
|
||
|
||
Christopher Robin read the message aloud.
|
||
|
||
"Oh, are those 'P's' piglets? I thought they were poohs."
|
||
|
||
"We must rescue him at once! I thought he was with _you_, Pooh. Owl,
|
||
could you rescue him on your back?"
|
||
|
||
"I don't think so," said Owl, after grave thought. "It is doubtful if
|
||
the necessary dorsal muscles----"
|
||
|
||
"Then would you fly to him at _once_ and say that Rescue is Coming? And
|
||
Pooh and I will think of a Rescue and come as quick as ever we can. Oh,
|
||
don't _talk_, Owl, go on quick!" And, still thinking of something to
|
||
say, Owl flew off.
|
||
|
||
"Now then, Pooh," said Christopher Robin, "where's your boat?"
|
||
|
||
"I ought to say," explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the
|
||
island, "that it isn't just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it's a
|
||
Boat, and sometimes it's more of an Accident. It all depends."
|
||
|
||
"Depends on what?"
|
||
|
||
"On whether I'm on the top of it or underneath it."
|
||
|
||
"Oh! Well, where is it?"
|
||
|
||
"There!" said Pooh, pointing proudly to _The Floating Bear_.
|
||
|
||
It wasn't what Christopher Robin expected, and the more he looked at it,
|
||
the more he thought what a Brave and Clever Bear Pooh was, and the more
|
||
Christopher Robin thought this, the more Pooh looked modestly down his
|
||
nose and tried to pretend he wasn't.
|
||
|
||
"But it's too small for two of us," said Christopher Robin sadly.
|
||
|
||
"Three of us with Piglet."
|
||
|
||
"That makes it smaller still. Oh, Pooh Bear, what shall we do?"
|
||
|
||
And then this Bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F.O.P. (Friend of
|
||
Piglet's), R.C. (Rabbit's Companion), P.D. (Pole Discoverer), E.C. and
|
||
T.F. (Eeyore's Comforter and Tail-finder)--in fact, Pooh himself--said
|
||
something so clever that Christopher Robin could only look at him with
|
||
mouth open and eyes staring, wondering if this was really the Bear of
|
||
Very Little Brain whom he had known and loved so long.
|
||
|
||
"We might go in your umbrella," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"?"
|
||
|
||
"We might go in your umbrella," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"? ?"
|
||
|
||
"We might go in your umbrella," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"!!!!!!"
|
||
|
||
For suddenly Christopher Robin saw that they might. He opened his
|
||
umbrella and put it point downwards in the water. It floated but
|
||
wobbled. Pooh got in. He was just beginning to say that it was all right
|
||
now, when he found that it wasn't, so after a short drink which he
|
||
didn't really want he waded back to Christopher Robin. Then they both
|
||
got in together, and it wobbled no longer.
|
||
|
||
"I shall call this boat _The Brain of Pooh_," said Christopher Robin,
|
||
and _The Brain of Pooh_ set sail forthwith in a south-westerly
|
||
direction, revolving gracefully.
|
||
|
||
You can imagine Piglet's joy when at last the ship came in sight of him.
|
||
In after-years he liked to think that he had been in Very Great Danger
|
||
during the Terrible Flood, but the only danger he had really been in was
|
||
in the last half-hour of his imprisonment, when Owl, who had just flown
|
||
up, sat on a branch of his tree to comfort him, and told him a very long
|
||
story about an aunt who had once laid a seagull's egg by mistake, and
|
||
the story went on and on, rather like this sentence, until Piglet who
|
||
was listening out of his window without much hope, went to sleep quietly
|
||
and naturally, slipping slowly out of the window towards the water until
|
||
he was only hanging on by his toes, at which moment luckily, a sudden
|
||
loud squawk from Owl, which was really part of the story, being what his
|
||
aunt said, woke the Piglet up and just gave him time to jerk himself
|
||
back into safety and say, "How interesting, and did she?" when--well,
|
||
you can imagine his joy when at last he saw the good ship, _Brain of
|
||
Pooh_ (_Captain_, C. Robin; _1st Mate_, P. Bear) coming over the sea to
|
||
rescue him. Christopher Robin and Pooh again....
|
||
|
||
And that is really the end of the story, and I am very tired after that
|
||
last sentence, I think I shall stop there.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER X
|
||
|
||
IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN GIVES
|
||
POOH A PARTY, AND WE SAY GOOD-BYE
|
||
|
||
|
||
One day when the sun had come back over the Forest, bringing with it
|
||
the scent of may, and all the streams of the Forest were tinkling
|
||
happily to find themselves their own pretty shape again, and the little
|
||
pools lay dreaming of the life they had seen and the big things they had
|
||
done, and in the warmth and quiet of the Forest the cuckoo was trying
|
||
over his voice carefully and listening to see if he liked it, and
|
||
wood-pigeons were complaining gently to themselves in their lazy
|
||
comfortable way that it was the other fellow's fault, but it didn't
|
||
matter very much; on such a day as this Christopher Robin whistled in a
|
||
special way he had, and Owl came flying out of the Hundred Acre Wood to
|
||
see what was wanted.
|
||
|
||
"Owl," said Christopher Robin, "I am going to give a party."
|
||
|
||
"You are, are you?" said Owl.
|
||
|
||
"And it's to be a special sort of party, because it's because of what
|
||
Pooh did when he did what he did to save Piglet from the flood."
|
||
|
||
"Oh, that's what it's for, is it?" said Owl.
|
||
|
||
"Yes, so will you tell Pooh as quickly as you can, and all the others,
|
||
because it will be to-morrow."
|
||
|
||
"Oh, it will, will it?" said Owl, still being as helpful as possible.
|
||
|
||
"So will you go and tell them, Owl?"
|
||
|
||
Owl tried to think of something very wise to say, but couldn't, so he
|
||
flew off to tell the others. And the first person he told was Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Pooh," he said, "Christopher Robin is giving a party."
|
||
|
||
"Oh!" said Pooh. And then seeing that Owl expected him to say something
|
||
else, he said "Will there be those little cake things with pink sugar
|
||
icing?"
|
||
|
||
Owl felt that it was rather beneath him to talk about little cake things
|
||
with pink sugar icing, so he told Pooh exactly what Christopher Robin
|
||
had said, and flew off to Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"A party for Me?" thought Pooh to himself. "How grand!" And he began to
|
||
wonder if all the other animals would know that it was a special Pooh
|
||
Party, and if Christopher Robin had told them about _The Floating Bear_
|
||
and the _Brain of Pooh_ and all the wonderful ships he had invented and
|
||
sailed on, and he began to think how awful it would be if everybody had
|
||
forgotten about it, and nobody quite knew what the party was for; and
|
||
the more he thought like this, the more the party got muddled in his
|
||
mind, like a dream when nothing goes right. And the dream began to sing
|
||
itself over in his head until it became a sort of song. It was an
|
||
|
||
ANXIOUS POOH SONG.
|
||
|
||
3 Cheers for Pooh!
|
||
(_For Who?_)
|
||
For Pooh--
|
||
(_Why what did he do?_)
|
||
I thought you knew;
|
||
He saved his friend from a wetting!
|
||
3 Cheers for Bear!
|
||
(_For where?_)
|
||
For Bear--
|
||
He couldn't swim,
|
||
But he rescued him!
|
||
(_He rescued who?_)
|
||
Oh, listen, do!
|
||
I am talking of Pooh--
|
||
(_Of who?_)
|
||
Of Pooh!
|
||
(_I'm sorry I keep forgetting_).
|
||
Well, Pooh was a Bear of Enormous Brain
|
||
(_Just say it again!_)
|
||
Of enormous brain--
|
||
(_Of enormous what?_)
|
||
Well, he ate a lot,
|
||
And I don't know if he could swim or not,
|
||
But he managed to float
|
||
On a sort of boat
|
||
(_On a sort of what?_)
|
||
Well, a sort of pot--
|
||
So now let's give him three hearty cheers
|
||
(_So now let's give him three hearty whiches?_)
|
||
And hope he'll be with us for years and years,
|
||
And grow in health and wisdom and riches!
|
||
3 Cheers for Pooh!
|
||
(_For who?_)
|
||
For Pooh--
|
||
3 Cheers for Bear!
|
||
(_For where?_)
|
||
For Bear--
|
||
3 Cheers for the wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh!
|
||
(_Just tell me, somebody_--WHAT DID HE DO?)
|
||
|
||
While this was going on inside him, Owl was talking to Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"Eeyore," said Owl, "Christopher Robin is giving a party."
|
||
|
||
"Very interesting," said Eeyore. "I suppose they will be sending me down
|
||
the odd bits which got trodden on. Kind and Thoughtful. Not at all,
|
||
don't mention it."
|
||
|
||
"There is an Invitation for you."
|
||
|
||
"What's that like?"
|
||
|
||
"An Invitation!"
|
||
|
||
"Yes, I heard you. Who dropped it?"
|
||
|
||
"This isn't anything to eat, it's asking you to the party. To-morrow."
|
||
|
||
Eeyore shook his head slowly.
|
||
|
||
"You mean Piglet. The little fellow with the excited ears. That's
|
||
Piglet. I'll tell him."
|
||
|
||
"No, no!" said Owl, getting quite fussy. "It's you!"
|
||
|
||
"Are you sure?"
|
||
|
||
"Of course I'm sure. Christopher Robin said 'All of them! Tell all of
|
||
them.'"
|
||
|
||
"All of them, except Eeyore?"
|
||
|
||
"All of them," said Owl sulkily.
|
||
|
||
"Ah!" said Eeyore. "A mistake, no doubt, but still, I shall come. Only
|
||
don't blame _me_ if it rains."
|
||
|
||
But it didn't rain. Christopher Robin had made a long table out of some
|
||
long pieces of wood, and they all sat round it. Christopher Robin sat at
|
||
one end, and Pooh sat at the other, and between them on one side were
|
||
Owl and Eeyore and Piglet, and between them on the other side were
|
||
Rabbit, and Roo and Kanga. And all Rabbit's friends and relations spread
|
||
themselves about on the grass, and waited hopefully in case anybody
|
||
spoke to them, or dropped anything, or asked them the time.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
"This party," said Christopher Robin, "is a party because of what
|
||
someone did, and we all know who it was, and it's his party, because of
|
||
what he did, and I've got a present for him and here it is." Then he
|
||
felt about a little and whispered, "Where is it?"
|
||
|
||
While he was looking, Eeyore coughed in an impressive way and began to
|
||
speak.
|
||
|
||
"Friends," he said, "including oddments, it is a great pleasure, or
|
||
perhaps I had better say it has been a pleasure so far, to see you at my
|
||
party. What I did was nothing. Any of you--except Rabbit and Owl and
|
||
Kanga--would have done the same. Oh, and Pooh. My remarks do not, of
|
||
course, apply to Piglet and Roo, because they are too small. Any of you
|
||
would have done the same. But it just happened to be Me. It was not, I
|
||
need hardly say, with an idea of getting what Christopher Robin is
|
||
looking for now"--and he put his front leg to his mouth and said in a
|
||
loud whisper, "Try under the table"--"that I did what I did--but because
|
||
I feel that we should all do what we can to help. I feel that we should
|
||
all----"
|
||
|
||
"H--hup!" said Roo accidentally.
|
||
|
||
"Roo, dear!" said Kanga reproachfully.
|
||
|
||
"Was it me?" asked Roo, a little surprised.
|
||
|
||
"What's Eeyore talking about?" Piglet whispered to Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"I don't know," said Pooh rather dolefully.
|
||
|
||
"I thought this was _your_ party."
|
||
|
||
"I thought it was _once_. But I suppose it isn't."
|
||
|
||
"I'd sooner it was yours than Eeyore's," said Piglet.
|
||
|
||
"So would I," said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"H--hup!" said Roo again.
|
||
|
||
"AS--I--WAS--SAYING," said Eeyore loudly and sternly, "as I was saying
|
||
when I was interrupted by various Loud Sounds, I feel that----"
|
||
|
||
"Here it is!" cried Christopher Robin excitedly. "Pass it down to silly
|
||
old Pooh. It's for Pooh."
|
||
|
||
"For Pooh?" said Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"Of course it is. The best bear in all the world."
|
||
|
||
"I might have known," said Eeyore. "After all, one can't complain. I
|
||
have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last
|
||
week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said 'Bother!'
|
||
The Social Round. Always something going on."
|
||
|
||
Nobody was listening, for they were all saying "Open it, Pooh," "What is
|
||
it, Pooh?" "I know what it is," "No, you don't" and other helpful
|
||
remarks of this sort. And of course Pooh was opening it as quickly as
|
||
ever he could, but without cutting the string, because you never know
|
||
when a bit of string might be Useful. At last it was undone.
|
||
|
||
When Pooh saw what it was, he nearly fell down, he was so pleased. It
|
||
was a Special Pencil Case. There were pencils in it marked "B" for Bear,
|
||
and pencils marked "HB" for Helping Bear, and pencils marked "BB" for
|
||
Brave Bear. There was a knife for sharpening the pencils, and
|
||
india-rubber for rubbing out anything which you had spelt wrong, and a
|
||
ruler for ruling lines for the words to walk on, and inches marked on
|
||
the ruler in case you wanted to know how many inches anything was, and
|
||
Blue Pencils and Red Pencils and Green Pencils for saying special things
|
||
in blue and red and green. And all these lovely things were in little
|
||
pockets of their own in a Special Case which shut with a click when you
|
||
clicked it. And they were all for Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Oh!" said Pooh.
|
||
|
||
"Oh, Pooh!" said everybody else except Eeyore.
|
||
|
||
"Thank-you," growled Pooh.
|
||
|
||
But Eeyore was saying to himself, "This writing business. Pencils and
|
||
what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it."
|
||
|
||
Later on, when they had all said "Good-bye" and "Thank-you" to
|
||
Christopher Robin, Pooh and Piglet walked home thoughtfully together in
|
||
the golden evening, and for a long time they were silent.
|
||
|
||
"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.
|
||
|
||
* * * * *
|
||
|
||
"And what did happen?" asked Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
"When?"
|
||
|
||
"Next morning."
|
||
|
||
"I don't know."
|
||
|
||
"Could you think and tell me and Pooh some time?"
|
||
|
||
"If you wanted it very much."
|
||
|
||
"Pooh does," said Christopher Robin.
|
||
|
||
He gave a deep sigh, picked his bear up by the leg and walked off to the
|
||
door, trailing Winnie-the-Pooh behind him. At the door he turned and
|
||
said "Coming to see me have my bath?"
|
||
|
||
"I might," I said.
|
||
|
||
"Was Pooh's pencil case any better than mine?"
|
||
|
||
"It was just the same," I said.
|
||
|
||
He nodded and went out ... and in a moment I heard
|
||
Winnie-the-Pooh--_bump, bump, bump_--going up the stairs behind him.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Printed in Canada
|
||
by Warwick Bros. & Rutter, Limited
|
||
Printers and Bookbinders
|
||
Toronto
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[Transcriber's Note: Near the end of Chapter VI, the reference to
|
||
Kanga was modified to read "...and every Tuesday Kanga spent the day
|
||
with her great friend Pooh ..."]
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINNIE-THE-POOH ***
|
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