Alan Alexander Miln. Winnie-The-Pooh and All, All, All


Alan Alexander Miln. Winnie-The-Pooh and All, All, All





http://www.machaon.ru/pooh/index.txt		Original of this document is at http://www.machaon.ru/pooh/



                                 
                                 To her
                                 Hand in hand we come
                                 Christopher Robin and I
                                 To lay this book in your lap.
                                 Say you're surprised?
                                 Say it's just what you wanted?
                                 Because it's yours -
                                 because we love you.
                                 

1. Introduction

        IF   you   happen  to  have  read  another  book  about
Christopher Robin, you may remember that he once had a swan (or
the swan had Christopher Robin, I don't know which) and that he
used to call this swan Pooh. That was a long time ago, and when
we said good-bye, we took the name with us, as we didn't  think
the  swan  would  want it any more. Well, when Edward Bear said
that he would like an exciting name all to himself, Christopher
Robin said at once, without stopping  to  think,  that  he  was
Winnie-the-Pooh.  And  he was. So, as I have explained the Pooh
part, I will now explain the rest of it.



        <img src="img00001.gif" width=174 height=175>

        You can't be in London for long without  going  to  the
Zoo.  There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning,
called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past  every  cage
until  they get to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people
go straight to the animal they love the most, and  stay  there.
So when Christopher Robin goes to the Zoo, he goes to where the
Polar  Bears are, and he whispers something to the third keeper
from the left, and doors are unlocked, and  we  wander  through
dark passages and up steep stairs, until at last we come to the
special  cage,  and the cage is opened, and out trots something
brown  and  furry,  and  with  a  happy  cry  of  "Oh,   Bear!"
Christopher Robin rushes into its arms. Now this bear's name is
Winnie,  which  shows what a good name for bears it is, but the
funny thing is that we can't remember whether Winnie is  called
after Pooh, or Pooh after Winnie. We did know once, but we have
forgotten. . . .

        I  had written as far as this when Piglet looked up and
said in his squeaky voice, "What about Me?" "My dear Piglet," I
said, "the whole book is about you." "So it is about Pooh,"  he
squeaked.  You  see what it is. He is jealous because he thinks
Pooh is having a Grand Introduction all to himself. Pooh is the
favourite, of course, there's no denying it, but  Piglet  comes
in  for a good many things which Pooh misses; because you can't
take Pooh to school without everybody knowing it, but Piglet is
so small that  he  slips  into  a  pocket,  where  it  is  very
comforting  to  feel  him  when  you are not quite sure whether
twice seven is twelve or twenty-two. Sometimes he slips out and
has a good look in the ink-pot, and in this way he has got more
education than Pooh, but Pooh doesn't mind. Some  have  brains,
and some haven't, he says, and there it is.

        And  now all the others are saying, "What about Us?" So
perhaps the best thing to do is to stop  writing  Introductions
and get on with the book.


        A. A. M.

2.  * PART 1 * 

3. Chapter 1 ...in which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, and the stories begin

        HERE is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump,
bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is,
as far as  he  knows,  the  only  way of coming downstairs, but
sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he
could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.

        And then he feels that  perhaps  there  isn't.  Anyhow,
here  he  is  at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you.
Winnie-the-Pooh.


        <img src="img00002.gif" width=442 height=570>

        When I first heard his name, I said, just  as  you  are
going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?"

        "So did I," said Christopher Robin.

        "Then you can't call him Winnie?"

        "I don't."

        "But you said -- "

        "He's  Winnie-ther-Pooh.  Don't  you  know  what 'ther'
means?"

        "Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you  do
too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.

        Sometimes  Winnie-the-Pooh  likes  a  game of some sort
when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly
in front of the fire and listen to a story. This evening --

        "What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.

        "What about a story?" I said.

        "Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"

        "I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does
he like?"

        "About himself. Because he's that sort of Bear."

        "Oh, I see."

        "So could you very sweetly?"

        "I'll try," I said.

        So I tried.


        Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about  last
Friday,  Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under
the name of Sanders.

        ("What does 'under the name' mean?"  asked  Christopher
Robin. "It means he had the name over the door in gold letters,
and lived under it."

        "Winnie-the-Pooh  wasn't  quite sure," said Christopher
Robin.

        "Now I am," said a growly voice.

        "Then I will go on," said I.)


        One day when he was out walking, he  came  to  an  open
place  in  the  middle of the forest, and in the middle of this
place was a large oak-tree, and, from  the  top  of  the  tree,
there came a loud buzzing-noise.

        Winnie-the-Pooh  sat  down at the foot of the tree, put
his head between his paws and began to think.

        First of all he said to  himself:  "That  buzzing-noise
means  something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just
buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If  there's
a  buzzing-noise,  somebody's  making  a buzzing-noise, and the
only reason for making  a  buzzing-noise  that  I  know  of  is
because you're a bee."

        Then  he  thought another long time, and said: "And the
only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey."

        And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason  for
making  honey  is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the
tree

        He climbed and he climbed and  he  climbed  and  as  he
climbed he sang a little song to himself. It went like this:

        
        Isn't it funny
        How a bear likes honey?
        Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
        I wonder why he does?
        

        Then he climbed a little further.  .  .  and  a  little
further  .  . . and then just a little further. By that time he
had thought of another song.


        
        It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
        They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.
        And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
        We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.
        


        He was getting rather tired by this time,  so  that  is
why he sang a Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if
he just s t o o d o n t h a t branch . . .

        Crack !

        "Oh,  help!"  said  Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the
branch below him.

        "If only I hadn't -- " he said, as  he  bounced  twenty
feet on to the next branch.

        "You  see,  what  I  meant  to do," he explained, as he
turned head-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty
feet below, "what I meant to do -- "

        "Of course, it was rather  --  "  he  admitted,  as  he
slithered very quickly through the next six branches.

        "It  all  comes,  I  suppose,"  he  decided, as he said
good-bye to the last branch, spun round three times,  and  flew
gracefully  into a gorse-bush, "it all comes of liking honey so
much. Oh, help!"

        He crawled out of the gorse-bush, brushed the  prickles
from  his  nose, and began to think again. And the first person
he thought of was Christopher Robin.

        ("Was that me?"  said  Christopher  Robin  in  an  awed
voice, hardly daring to believe it.

        "That was you."

        Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger
and larger, and his face got pinker and pinker.)

        So Winnie-the-Pooh went round to his friend Christopher
Robin, who  lived  behind  a  green door in another part of the
Forest.

        "Good morning, Christopher Robin," he said.

        "Good morning, Winnie-ther-Pooh," said you.

        "I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon about
you?"

        "A balloon?"

        "Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder  if
Christopher  Robin  has such a thing as a balloon about him?' I
just said it to myself, thinking of balloons, and wondering."

        "What do you want a balloon for?" you said.

        Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to  see  that  nobody  was
listening,  put  his  paw  to  his  mouth,  and  said in a deep
whisper: "Honey!"

        "But you don't get honey with balloons!"

        "I do," said Pooh.

        Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the
day before at the house of your  friend  Piglet,  and  you  had
balloons at the party. You had had a big green balloon; and one
of  Rabbit's  relations had had a big blue one, and had left it
behind, being really too young to go to a party at all; and  so
you had brought the green one and the blue one home with you.

        "Which  one would you like?" you asked Pooh. He put his
head between his paws and thought very carefully.

        "It's like this," he said. "When  you  go  after  honey
with  a  balloon,  the  great thing is not to let the bees know
you're coming. Now, if you have a  green  balloon,  they  might
think  you  were only part of the tree, and not notice you, and
if you have a blue balloon, they might think you were only part
of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is:  Which  is
most likely?"

        "Wouldn't  they notice you underneath the balloon?" you
asked.

        "They might or they might not,"  said  Winnie-the-Pooh.
"You  never  can  tell  with bees." He thought for a moment and
said: "I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That  will
deceive them."

        "Then  you had better have the blue balloon," you said;
and so it was decided.

        Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and  you
took  your  gun  with you, just in case, as you always did, and
Winnie-the-Pooh went to a very muddy place that he knew of, and
rolled and rolled until he was black all over; and  then,  when
the  balloon  was blown up as big as big, and you and Pooh were
both holding on to the string, you let go  suddenly,  and  Pooh
Bear  floated  gracefully  up into the sky, and stayed there --
level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away  from
it.

        "Hooray!" you shouted.

        "Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you.
"What do I look like?"

        "You  look  like  a  Bear holding on to a balloon," you
said.

        "Not," said Pooh anxiously, " -- not like a small black
cloud in a blue sky?"

        "Not very much."

        "Ah, well, perhaps from up  here  it  looks  different.
And, as I say, you never can tell with bees."

        There  was  no  wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so
there he stayed. He could see the honey,  he  could  smell  the
honey, but he couldn't quite reach the honey.

        After a little while he called down to you.

        "Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.

        "Hallo!"

        "I think the bees suspect something!"

        "What sort of thing?"

        "I  don't  know.  But  something  tells me that they're
suspicious!"

        "Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?"

        "It may be that. You never can tell with bees."

        There was another little silence, and  then  he  called
down to you again.

        "Christopher Robin!"

        "Yes?"

        "Have you an umbrella in your house?"

        "I think so."

        "I  wish  you  would bring it out here, and walk up and
down with it, and look up at me every now  and  then,  and  say
'Tut-tut,  it  looks  like  rain.' I think, if you did that, it
would help the deception  which  we  are  practising  on  these
bees."

        Well,  you  laughed to yourself, "Silly old Bear !" but
you didn't say it aloud because you were so fond  of  him,  and
you went home for your umbrella.

        "Oh,  there  you  are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as
soon as you got back to the  tree.  "I  was  beginning  to  get
anxious.  I  have  discovered  that the bees are now definitely
Suspicious."

        "Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.

        "Yes,  but  wait  a  moment.  We must be practical. The
important bee to deceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is
the Queen Bee from down there?"

        "No."

        "A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down  with  your
umbrella,  saying,  'Tut-tut,  it  looks like rain,' I shall do
what I can by singing a little Cloud  Song,  such  as  a  cloud
might sing. . . . Go!"

        So,  while  you  walked  up and down and wondered if it
would rain, Winnie-the-Pooh sang this song:

        
        How sweet to be a Cloud
        Floating in the Blue!
        Every little cloud
        Always sings aloud.
        "How sweet to be a Cloud
        Floating in the Blue!"
        It makes him very proud
        To be a little cloud.
        

        The bees were still buzzing as  suspiciously  as  ever.
Some  of  them, indeed, left their nests and flew all round the
cloud as it began the second verse of this song,  and  one  bee
sat down on the nose of the cloud for a moment, and then got up
again.

        "Christopher -- ow! -- Robin," called out the cloud.

        "Yes?"

        "I  have  just been thinking, and I have come to a very
important decision. These are the wrong sort of bees."

        "Are they?"

        "Quite the wrong sort. So I  should  think  they  would
make the wrong sort of honey, shouldn't you?"

        "Would they?"

        "Yes. So I think I shall come down."

        "How?" asked you.

        Winnie-the-Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go
of the string,  he would fall -- bump -- and he didn't like the
idea of that. So he thought for a long time, and then he said:

        "Christopher Robin, you must  shoot  the  balloon  with
your gun. Have you got your gun?"

        "Of  course  I  have,"  you said. "But if I do that, it
will spoil the balloon," you said. But if you don't" said Pooh,
"I shall have to let go, and that would spoil me."

        When he put it like this, you saw how it was,  and  you
aimed very carefully at the balloon, and fired.

        "Ow!" said Pooh.

        "Did I miss?" you asked.

        "You  didn't  exactly miss," said Pooh, "but you missed
the balloon."

        "I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this
time you hit the balloon and  the  air  came  slowly  out,  and
Winnie-the-Pooh floated down to the ground.




        But  his  arms  were  so  stiff  from holding on to the
string of the  balloon  all  that  time  that  they  stayed  up
straight  in  the  air for more than a week, and whenever a fly
came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think
-- but I am not sure -- that that is why he was  always  called
Pooh.



        "Is  that  the  end  of  the  story?" asked Christopher
Robin.

        "That's the end of that one. There are others."

        "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 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.

4. Chapter 2 ...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.



        <img src="img00003.gif" width=377 height=259>


        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....

        "0w!" 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 has 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 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!"




5. Chapter 3 ...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.



        <img src="img00004.gif" width=423 height=228>


        "Hallo!" said Piglet, "what are you doing?"

        "Hunting," said Pooh.

        "Hunting what?"

        "Tracking   something,"   said   Winnie-the-Pooh   very
mysteriously.

        "Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer

        "That's just what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?"

        "What do you think you'll answer?"

        "I shall have to wait until I catch up with  it,"  said
Winnie-the-Pooh. "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in
front of him. "What do you see there?"

        "Tracks,"  said  Piglet.  "Paw-marks." He gave a little
squeak of excitement. "Oh, Pooh! Do you think it's a -- a --  a
Woozle?"

        "It may be," said Pooh. "Sometimes it is, and sometimes
it isn't. You never can tell with paw-marks."

        With  these  few words he went on tracking, and Piglet,
after watching  him  for  a  minute  or  two,  ran  after  him.
Winnie-the-Pooh had come to a sudden stop, and was bending over
the tracks in a puzzled sort of way.

        "What's the matter?" asked Piglet.

        "It's  a  very funny thing," said Bear, "but there seem
to be two animals now. This  --  whatever-it-was  --  has  been
joined by another -- whatever-it-is --

        and  the  two  of  them  are now proceeding in company.
Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to
be Hostile Animals?"

        Piglet scratched his ear in a nice  sort  of  way,  and
said  that  he  had  nothing  to  do until Friday, and would be
delighted to come, in case it really was a Woozle.

        "You mean, in case it  really  is  two  Woozles,"  said
Winnie-the-Pooh,  and Piglet said that anyhow he had nothing to
do until Friday. So off they went together.

        There was a small spinney of larch trees just here, and
it seemed as if the two Woozles, if that is what they were, had
been going round this spinney; so round this spinney went  Pooh
and  Piglet after them; Piglet passing the time by telling Pooh
what his Grandfather Trespassers W had done to Remove Stiffness
after Tracking, and  how  his  Grandfather  Trespassers  W  had
suffered in his later years from Shortness of Breath, and other
matters  of interest, and Pooh wondering what a Grandfather was
like, and if perhaps this was Two Grandfathers they were  after
now,  and,  if so, whether he would be allowed to take one home
and keep it, and what Christopher Robin would  say.  And  still
the tracks went on in front of them....

        Suddenly Winnie-the-Pooh stopped, and pointed excitedly
in front of him. "Look!"

        "What?"  said  Piglet,  with  a jump. And then, to show
that he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down  once  or
twice more in an exercising sort of way.

        "The tracks!" said Pooh. "A third animal has joined the
other two!"  "Pooh!"  cried  Piglet "Do you think it is another
Woozle?"

        "No," said Pooh, "because it makes different marks.  It
is  either Two Woozles and one, as it might be, Wizzle, or Two,
as it might be, Wizzles and one, if so it is,  Woozle.  Let  us
continue to follow them."

        So  they went on, feeling just a little anxious now, in
case the three animals in front of them were of Hostile Intent.
And Piglet wished very much that his  Grandfather  T.  W.  were
there, instead of elsewhere, and Pooh thought how nice it would
be   if   they   met   Christopher  Robin  suddenly  but  quite
accidentally, and only because he liked  Christopher  Robin  so
much. And then, all of a sudden, Winnie-the-Pooh stopped again,
and  licked the tip of his nose in a cooling manner, for he was
feeling more hot and anxious than  ever  in  his  life  before.
There were four animals in front of them!

        "Do you see, Piglet? Look at their tracks! Three, as it
were, Woozles,  and  one, as it was, Wizzle. Another Woozle has
joined them!"

        And so it seemed to be. There were the tracks; crossing
over each other here, getting muddled up with each other there;
but, quite plainly every now and then, the tracks of four  sets
of paws.

        "I  think,"  said Piglet, when he had licked the tip of
his nose too, and found that it brought very little comfort, "I
think that I  have  just  remembered  something.  I  have  just
remembered  something that I forgot to do yesterday and sha'n't
be able to do to-morrow. So I suppose I really ought to go back
and do it now."

        "We'll do it this afternoon, and I'll come  with  you,"
said Pooh.

        "It  isn't  the  sort  of  thing  you  can  do  in  the
afternoon,"  said  Piglet  quickly.  "It's  a  very  particular
morning  thing,  that  has  to  be done in the morning, and, if
possible, between the hours of What  would  you  say  the  time
was?"

        "About  twelve,"  said  Winnie-the-Pooh, looking at the
sun.

        "Between, as I was saying,  the  hours  of  twelve  and
twelve  five. So, really, dear old Pooh, if you'll excuse me --
What's that."

        Pooh looked up at the sky, and then, as  he  heard  the
whistle  again,  he  looked  up  into  the  branches  of  a big
oak-tree, and then he saw a friend of his.

        "It's Christopher Robin," he said.

        "Ah, then you'll be all right," said Piglet.

        "You'll be quite  safe  with  him.  Good-bye,"  and  he
trotted off home as quickly as he could, very glad to be Out of
All Danger again.

        Christopher Robin came slowly down his tree.

        "Silly  old Bear," he said, "what were you doing? First
you went round the spinney twice by yourself, and  then  Piglet
ran  after  you and you went round again together, and then you
were just going round a fourth time"

        "Wait a moment," said Winnie-the-Pooh, holding  up  his
paw.

        He  sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he
could think. Then he fitted his paw into one of the Tracks  ...
and then he scratched his nose twice, and stood up.

        "Yes," said Winnie-the-Pooh.

        "I see now," said Winnie-the-Pooh.

        "I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a
Bear of No Brain at All."

        "You're   the   Best  Bear  in  All  the  World,"  said
Christopher Robin soothingly.

        "Am I?" said Pooh hopefully. And then he brightened  up
suddenly.

        "Anyhow," he said, "it is nearly Luncheon Time."

        So he went home for it.


6. Chapter 4 ...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."


        <img src="img00005.gif" width=329 height=343>


        "Let's  have a look," said Eeyore, and he turned slowly
round to the place where his tail had been a little while  ago,
and then, finding that he couldn't catch it up, he turned round
the other way, until he came back to where he was at first, and
then  he  put  his head down and looked between his front legs,
and at last he said, with a long, sad sigh, "I  believe  you're
right"

        "Of course I'm right," said Pooh

        "That  accounts for a Good Deal," said Eeyore gloomily.
"It explains Everything. No Wonder."

        "You   must   have    left    it    somewhere,"    said
Winnie-the-Pooh.

        "Somebody must have taken it," said Eeyore.

        "How  Like  Them," he added, after a long silence. Pooh
felt that he ought to  say  something  helpful  about  it,  but
didn't quite know what.

        So he decided to do something helpful instead.

        "Eeyore,"  he  said solemnly, "I, Winnie-the-Pooh, will
find your tail for you."

        "Thank you, Pooh,"  answered  Eeyore.  "You're  a  real
friend," said he. "Not like Some," he said.

        So Winnie-the-Pooh went off to find Eeyore's tail.

        It  was  a  fine  spring  morning  in  the forest as he
started out. Little soft clouds played happily in a  blue  sky,
skipping  from  time to time in front of the sun as if they had
come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that  the
next might have his turn. Through them and between them the sun
shone bravely, and a copse which had worn its firs all the year
round  seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which
the beeches had put on so prettily. Through copse  and  spinney
marched Bear; down open slopes of gorse and heather, over rocky
beds  of  streams, up steep banks of sandstone into the heather
again; and so at last, tired and hungry, to  the  Hundred  Acre
Wood. For it was in the Hundred Acre Wood that Owl lived.

        "And  if  anyone  knows  anything about anything," said
Bear  to  himself,  "it's  Owl  who   knows   something   about
something,"  he  said,  "or  my name's not Winnie-the-Pooh," he
said. "Which it is," he added. "So there you are."

        Owl lived at The Chestnuts, and old-world residence  of
great  charm,  which was grander than anybody else's, or seemed
so to Bear, because it had both  a  knocker  and  a  bell-pull.
Underneath the knocker there was a notice which said:


        
        PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD.
        


        Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:


        
        PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID.
        



        These  notices  had  been written by Christopher Robin,
who was the only one in the forest who could  spell;  for  Owl,
wise  though  he  was  in many ways, able to read and write and
spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went  all  to  pieces  over
delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST.

        Winnie-the-Pooh  read  the  two notices very carefully,
first from left to right, and afterwards, in case he had missed
some of it, from right to left. Then, to make  quite  sure,  he
knocked  and  pulled the knocker, and he pulled and knocked the
bell-rope, and he called out in a  very  loud  voice,  "Owl!  I
require  an  answer!  It's Bear speaking." And the door opened,
and Owl looked out.

        "Hallo, Pooh," he said. "How's things?"

        "Terrible and Sad," said Pooh, "because Eeyore, who  is
a  friend of mine, has lost his tail. And he's Moping about it.
So could you very kindly tell me how to find it for him?"

        "Well," said Owl,  "the  customary  procedure  in  such
cases is as follows."

        "What  does  Crustimoney  Proseedcake mean?" said Pooh.
"For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and  long  words  Bother
me."

        "It means the Thing to Do."

        "As  long  as  it  means that, I don't mind," said Pooh
humbly.

        "The thing to do is as follows. First, Issue a  Reward.
Then -- "

        "Just  a  moment," said Pooh, holding up his paw. "What
do we do to this -- what you were saying? You sneezed  just  as
you were going to tell me."

        "I didn't sneeze."

        "Yes, you did, Owl."

        "Excuse  me,  Pooh,  I didn't. You can't sneeze without
knowing it."

        "Well, you can't know it without something having  been
sneezed."

        "What I said was, 'First Issue a Reward'."

        "You're doing it again," said Pooh sadly.

        "A Reward!" said Owl very loudly. "We write a notice to
say that  we  will  give a large something to anybody who finds
Eeyore's tail."

        "I see, I see," said Pooh, nodding his  head.  "Talking
about large somethings," he went on dreamily, "I generally have
a small something about now -- about this time in the morning,"
and  he looked wistfully at the cupboard in the corner of Owl's
parlour; "just a mouthful of condensed milk  or  whatnot,  with
perhaps a lick of honey -- "

        <img src="img00006.gif" width=524 height=628>

        "Well,  then," said Owl, "we write out this notice, and
we put it up all over the Forest."

        "A lick of honey," murmured Bear to himself, "or --  or
not,  as  the  case may be." And he gave a deep sigh, and tried
very hard to listen to what Owl was saying.

        But Owl went on and on, using longer and longer  words,
until  at  last  he  came  back  to  where  he  started, and he
explained  that  the  person  to  write  out  this  notice  was
Christopher Robin.

        "It  was he who wrote the ones on my front door for me.
Did you see them, Pooh?"

        For some time now Pooh had been saying "Yes"  and  "No"
in  turn,  with  his eyes shut, to all that Owl was saying, and
having said, "Yes, yes," last time, he said "No, not  at  all,"
now, without really knowing what Owl was talking about? "Didn't
you  see them?" said Owl, a little surprised. "Come and look at
them now."

        So they went outside. And Pooh looked  at  the  knocker
and the notice below it, and he looked at the bell-rope and the
notice  below  it, and the more he looked at the bell-rope, the
more he felt that he had  seen  something  like  it,  somewhere
else, sometime before.

        "Handsome bell-rope, isn't it?" said Owl.

        Pooh nodded.

        "It  reminds  me  of  something," he said, "but I can't
think what. Where did you get it?"

        "I just came across it in the Forest.  It  was  hanging
over  a bush, and I thought at first somebody lived there, so I
rang it, and nothing happened, and then I rang  it  again  very
loudly,  and  it  came  off in my hand, and as nobody seemed to
want it, I took it home, and"

        "Owl,"  said  Pooh  solemnly,  "you  made  a   mistake.
Somebody did want it."

        "Who?"

        "Eeyore.  My  dear friend Eeyore. He was -- he was fond
of it."

        "Fond of it?"

        "Attached to it," said Winnie-the-Pooh sadly.


        So with these words he unhooked it, and carried it back
to Eeyore; and when Christopher Robin  had  nailed  it  on  its
right  place again, Eeyore frisked about the forest, waving his
tail so happily that Winnie-the-Pooh came over all  funny,  and
had  to  hurry  home for a little snack of something to sustain
him. And wiping his mouth half an hour afterwards, he  sang  to
himself proudly:


        
        Who found the Tail?
        "I," said Pooh,
        "At a quarter to two
        (Only it was quarter to eleven really),
        I found the Tail!"
        

        <img src="img00007.gif" width=382 height=247>

7. Chapter 5 ...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 where  you  would  be,
and  there  I should catch you. Now the first thing to think of
is, What do Heffalumps like? I should think  acorns,  shouldn't
you? We'll get a lot of -- I say, wake up, Pooh!"

        Pooh,  who  had gone into a happy dream, woke up with a
start, and said that Honey was a much more  trappy  thing  than
Haycorns.  Piglet  didn't think so; and they were just going to
argue about it, when Piglet remembered that, if they put acorns
in the Trap, he would have to find the acorns, but if they  put
honey,  then  Pooh would have to give up some of his own honey,
so he said, "All right, honey then," just as Pooh remembered it
too, and was going to say, "All right, haycorns." "Honey," said
Piglet to himself in a  thoughtful  way,  as  if  it  were  now
settled. "I'll dig the pit, while you go and get the honey."

        "Very well," said Pooh, and he stumped off.

        As  soon  as he got home, he went to the larder; and he
stood on a chair, and took down a very large jar of honey  from
the  top  shelf.  It had HUNNY written on it, but, just to make
sure, he took off the paper cover and  looked  at  it,  and  it
looked just like honey. "But you never can tell," said Pooh. "I
remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this
colour." So he put his tongue in, and took a large lick. "Yes,"
he  said, "it is. No doubt about that. And honey, I should say,
right down to the bottom of the jar.  Unless,  of  course,"  he
said,  "somebody  put  cheese in at the bottom just for a joke.
Perhaps I had better go a little further . . . just in case . .
. in case Heffalumps don't like cheese . . . same as me. . .  .
Ah!"  And he gave a deep sigh. "I was right. It is honey, right
the way down."

        Having made certain of this, he took the  jar  back  to
Piglet,  and  Piglet looked up from the bottom of his Very Deep
Pit, and said, "Got it?" and Pooh  said,  "Yes,  but  it  isn't
quite  a  full jar," and he threw it down to Piglet, and Piglet
said, "No, it isn't! Is that all you've  got  left?"  and  Pooh
said,  "Yes."  Because  it  was.  So  Piglet put the jar at the
bottom of the Pit, and climbed out,  and  they  went  off  home
together.

        "Well,  good  night,  Pooh," said Piglet, when they had
got to Pooh's house. "And we  meet  at  six  o'clock  to-morrow
morning  by  the  Pine Trees, and see how many Heffalumps we've
got in our Trap."

        "Six o'clock, Piglet. And have you got any string?"

        "No. Why do you want string?"

        "To lead them home with."

        "Oh! . . . I think Heffalumps come if you whistle."

        "Some do and  some  don't.  You  never  can  tell  with
Heffalumps. Well, good night!"

        "Good night!"

        And  off  Piglet  trotted  to  his house TRESPASSERS W,
while Pooh made his preparations for bed.

        Some hours later, just as the night  was  beginning  to
steal  away,  Pooh  woke up suddenly with a sinking feeling. He
had had that sinking feeling before, and he knew what it meant.
He was hungry. So he went to the larder,  and  he  stood  on  a
chair and reached up to the top shelf, and found -- nothing.

        "That's  funny,"  he  thought.  "I  know I had a jar of
honey there. A full jar, full of honey right up to the top, and
it had HUNNY written on it, so that I should know it was honey.
That's very funny." And then he began to wander  up  and  down,
wondering  where it was and murmuring a murmur to himself. Like
this:


        
        It's very, very funny,
        'Cos I know I had some honey:
        'Cos it had a label on,
        Saying HUNNY,
        A goloptious full-up pot too,
        And I don't know where it's got to,
        No, I don't know where it's gone --
        Well, it's funny.
        

        He had murmured  this  to  himself  three  times  in  a
singing sort of way, when suddenly he remembered. He had put it
into the Cunning Trap to catch the Heffalump.

        "Bother!" said Pooh. "It all comes of trying to be kind
to Heffalumps." And he got back into bed.

        But  he couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the
more he couldn't. He tried Counting Sheep, which is sometimes a
good way of getting to sleep, and, as  that  was  no  good,  he
tried  counting  Heffalumps.  And that was worse. Because every
Heffalump that he counted was making  straight  for  a  pot  of
Pooh's  honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he lay there
miserably,  but  when  the  five  hundred  and   eighty-seventh
Heffalump  was  licking  its  jaws, and saying to itself, "Very
good honey this, I don't know when I've  tasted  better,"  Pooh
could  bear  it  no longer. He jumped out of bed, he ran out of
the house, and he ran straight to the Six Pine Trees.

        The Sun was still in bed, but there was a lightness  in
the sky over the Hundred Acre Wood which seemed to show that it
was waking up and would soon be kicking off the clothes. In the
half-light  the Pine Trees looked cold and lonely, and the Very
Deep Pit seemed deeper than it was, and Pooh's jar of honey  at
the  bottom  was something mysterious, a shape and no more. But
as he got nearer lo it his nose told him  that  it  was  indeed
honey,  and  his  tongue  came  out  and began to polish up his
mouth, ready for it.

        "Bother!" said Pooh, as he got his nose inside the jar.
"A Heffalump has been eating it!" And then he thought a  little
and said, "Oh, no, I did. I forgot."

        Indeed, he had eaten most of it. But there was a little
left at  the  very  bottom  of  the jar, and he pushed his head
right in, and began to lick....


        <img src="img00008.gif" width=449 height=338>



        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.





8. Chapter 6 ...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. s' 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:


        
        Cottleslon, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
        A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
        Ask me a riddle and I reply:
        "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
        

        That  was  the  first  verse.  When he had finished it,
Eeyore didn't actually say that he didn't like it, so Pooh very
kindly sang the second verse to him:


        
        Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
        A fish can't whistle and neither can I.
        Ask me a riddle and I reply:
        "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
        

        Eeyore still said nothing at all, so  Pooh  hummed  the
third verse quietly to himself:


        
        Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
        Why does a chicken, I don't know why.
        Ask me a riddle and I reply:
        "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."
        

        "That's   right,"   said  Eeyore.  "Sing.  Umty-tiddly,
umty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself."

        "I am," said Pooh.

        "Some can," said Eeyore.

        "Why, what's the matter?"

        "Is anything the matter?"

        "You seem so sad, Eeyore."

        "Sad? Why should  I  be  sad?  It's  my  birthday.  The
happiest day of the year."

        "Your birthday?" said Pooh in great surprise.

        "Of  course  it  is.  Can't  you  see?  Look at all the
presents I have had." He waved a foot from side to side.  "Look
at the birthday cake. Candles and pink sugar."

        Pooh looked -- first to the right and then to the left.

        "Presents?"  said  Pooh.  "Birthday  cake?"  said Pooh.
"Where?"

        "Can't you see them?"

        "No," said Pooh.

        "Neither can I," said Eeyore. "Joke," he explained. "Ha
ha!"

        Pooh scratched his head, being a little puzzled by  all
this.

        "But is it really your birthday?" he asked.

        "It is."

        "Oh! Well, Many happy returns of the day, Eeyore."

        "And many happy returns to you, Pooh Bear."

        "But it isn't my birthday."

        "No, it's mine."

        "But you said 'Many happy returns' -- "

        "Well,  why  not? You don't always want to be miserable
on my birthday, do you?"

        "Oh, I see," said Pooh.

        "It's bad enough." said Eeyore.  almost  breaking  down
"being  miserable myself, what with no presents and no cake and
no candles, and no proper notice taken of me  at  all,  but  if
everybody else is going to be miserable too -- "

        This  was too much for Pooh. "Stay there!" he called to
Eeyore, as he turned and hurried  back  home  as  quick  as  he
could;  for  he  felt that he must get poor Eeyore a present of
some sort at once, and he could always think of  a  proper  one
afterwards.

        Outside  his house he found Piglet, jumping up and down
trying to reach the knocker.

        "Hallo, Piglet," he said.

        "Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet.

        "What are you trying to do?"

        "I was trying to reach the knocker,"  said  Piglet.  "I
just came round -- "

        "Let me do it for you," said Pooh kindly. So he reached
up and knocked  at  the  door. "I have just seen Eeyore is in a
Very Sad Condition, because it's his birthday, and  nobody  has
taken  any  notice of it, and he's very Gloomy -- you know what
Eeyore is -- and there he was, and -What a  long  time  whoever
lives here is answering this door." And he knocked again.

        "But Pooh," said Piglet, "it's your own house!"

        "Oh!"  said  Pooh. "So it is," he said. "Well, let's go
in."



        <img src="img00009.gif" width=172 height=145>



        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!!!???***!!!
        

        <img src="img00010.gif" width=366 height=156>

        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
balloon "

        "Not mine," said Eeyore proudly. "Look, Piglet!" And as
Piglet looked  sorrowfully  round, Eeyore picked the balloon up
with his teeth, and placed it carefully in the pot;  picked  it
out  and  put it on the ground; and then picked it up again and
put it carefully back.

        "So it does!" said Pooh. "It goes in!"

        "So it does!" said Piglet. "And it comes out!"

        "Doesn't it?" said Eeyore. "It goes  in  and  out  like
anything."

        "I'm  very glad," said Pooh happily, "that I thought of
giving you a Useful Pot to put things in."

        "I'm very glad," said Piglet happily, "that thought  of
giving you something to put in a Useful Pot."

        But  Eeyore wasn't listening. He was taking the balloon
out, and putting it back again, as happy as could be....



        "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?


9. Chapter 7 ...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 -- or -- 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 had 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 I.)

        4. A Thought. If Roo had jumped out of  Kanga's  pocket
and  Piglet  had jumped in, Kanga wouldn't know the difference,
because Piglet is a Very Small Animal.

        5. Like Roo.

        6. But Kanga would have to be  looking  the  other  way
first, so as not to see Piglet jumping in.

        7. See 2.

        8. Another Thought. But if Pooh was talking to her very
excitedly, she might look the other way for a moment.

        9. And then I could run away with Roo.

        10. Quickly.

        11.  And  Kanga  wouldn't discover the difference until
Afterwards


        Well, Rabbit read this out proudly, and  for  a  little
while  after  he  had  read  it  nobody  said anything And then
Piglet, who had been opening and  shutting  his  mouth  without
making any noise, managed to say very huskily:

        "And -- Afterwards?"

        "How do you mean?"

        "When Kanga does Discover the Difference?"

        "Then we all say 'Aha!'"

        "All three of us?"

        "Yes."

        "Oh!"

        "Why, what's the trouble, Piglet?"

        "Nothing,"  said  Piglet,  "as long as we all three say
it. As long as we all three say  it,"  said  Piglet,  "I  don't
mind,"  he said, "but I shouldn't care to say 'Aha!' by myself.
It wouldn't sound nearly so well. By the way,"  he  said,  "you
are quite sure about what you said about the winter months?"

        "The winter months?"

        "Yes, only being Fierce in the Winter Months."

        "Oh,  yes,  yes,  that's  all right. Well, Pooh You see
what you have to do?"

        "No," said Pooh Bear. "Not yet," he said?  "What  do  I
do?"

        "Well,  you just have to talk very hard to Kanga? so as
she doesn't notice anything."

        "Oh! What about?"

        "Anything you like."

        "You mean like telling her a little bit  of  poetry  or
something?"

        "That's it," said Rabbit. "Splendid Now come along."

        So they all went out to look for Kanga.

        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."


       <img src="img00011.gif" width=456 height=298>

        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 do and see about suddenly."

        "And Piglet?"

        "I think Piglet thought of something at the same  time.
Suddenly."

        "Well, we must be getting home," said Kanga. "Good-bye,
Pooh." And in three large jumps she was gone.

        Pooh looked after her as she went.

        "I  wish I could jump like that," he thought. "Some can
and some can't. That's how it is."

        But there were moments when Piglet  wished  that  Kanga
couldn't.  Often,  when he had had a long walk home through the
Forest, he had wished that he were a bird; but now  he  thought
jerkily to himself at the bottom of Kanga's pocket,

        
            this
    take

        "If      is          shall
  really      to

                    flying I       never
            it."
        

        And as he went up in the air he said, "Ooooooo!" and as
he came down he said, "Ow!" And  he  was  saying,  "Ooooooo-ow,
ooooooo-ow, ooooooo-ow" all the way to Kanga's house.

        Of  course  as soon as Kanga unbuttoned her pocket, she
saw what had happened. Just for a moment, she thought  she  was
frightened,  and  then  she knew she wasn't: for she felt quite
sure that Christopher Robin could never let any harm happen  to
Roo.  So  she  said to herself, "If they are having a joke with
me, I will have a joke with them."

        "Now then, Roo, dear," she said, as she took Piglet out
of her pocket. "Bed-time."

        "Aha!" said Piglet, as  well  as  he  could  after  his
Terrifying  Journey. But it wasn't a very good "Aha!" and Kanga
didn't seem to understand what it meant.

        "Bath first," said Kanga in a cheerful voice.

        "Aha!" said Piglet again, looking round  anxiously  for
the  others.  But  the others weren't there. Rabbit was playing
with Baby Roo in his own house, and feeling more  fond  of  him
every  minute,  and  Pooh,  who  had decided to be a Kanga, was
still at the sandy place on the top of the  Forest,  practising
jumps.

        "I  am  not  at  all  sure," said Kanga in a thoughtful
voice, "that it wouldn't be a good idea to  have  a  cold  bath
this evening. Would you like that, Roo, dear?"

        Piglet,  who  had  never  been  really  fond  of baths,
shuddered a long indignant shudder, and  said  in  as  brave  a
voice as he could:

        "Kanga, I see that the time has come to speak plainly."

        "Funny   little  Roo,"  said  Kanga,  as  she  got  the
bath-water ready.

        "I am not Roo," said Piglet loudly. "I am Piglet!"

        "Yes, dear, yes," said Kanga soothingly. "And imitating
Piglet's voice too! So clever of him," she went on, as she took
a large bar of yellow soap out of the cupboard. "What  will  he
be doing next"

        "Can't  you see?" shouted Piglet "Haven't you got eyes?
Look at me!"

        "I am looking, Roo, dear," said Kanga rather  severely.
"And  you know what I told you yesterday about making faces. If
you go on making faces like Piglet's, you will grow up to  look
like  Piglet -- and then think how sorry you will be. Now then,
into the bath, and don't let me have to speak to you  about  it
again."

        Before  he  knew  where he was, Piglet was in the bath,
and Kanga  was  scrubbing  him  firmly  with  a  large  lathery
flannel.

        "Ow!" cried Piglet. "Let me out! I'm Piglet!"

        "Don't open the mouth, dear, or the soap goes in," said
Kanga. "There! What did I tell you?"

        "You  --  you  --  you  did  it on purpose," spluttered
Piglet, as soon as  he  could  speak  again  .  .  .  and  then
accidentally had another mouthful of lathery flannel.

        "That's  right,  dear, don't say anything," said Kanga,
and in another minute Piglet was out of  the  bath,  and  being
rubbed dry with a towel.

        "Now,"  said  Kanga,  "there's  your medicine, and then
bed."

        "W-w-what medicine?" said Piglet.

        "To make you grow big and strong, dear. You don't  want
to grow up small and weak like Piglet, do you? Well, then!"

        At that moment there was a knock at the door.

        "Come in," said Kanga, and in came Christopher Robin.

        "Christopher  Robin,  Christopher Robin!" cried Piglet.
"Tell Kanga who I am! She keeps saying I'm Roo. I'm not Roo, am
I?"

        Christopher Robin looked at  him  very  carefully,  and
shook his head.

        "You  can't  be  Roo," he said, "because I've just seen
Roo playing in Rabbit's house."

        "Well!" said Kanga. "Fancy  that!  Fancy  my  making  a
mistake like that."

        "There  you  are!"  said  Piglet.  "I  told you so. I'm
Piglet."

        Christopher Robin shook his head again.

        "Oh, you're not Piglet," he said. "I know Piglet  well,
and he's quite a different colour."

        Piglet  began  to say that this was because he had just
had a bath, and then he thought that perhaps  he  wouldn't  say
that,  and  as he opened his mouth to say something else, Kanga
slipped the medicine spoon in, and then patted him on the  back
and told him that it was really quite a nice taste when you got
used to it.

        "I knew it wasn't Piglet," said Kanga. "I wonder who it
can be."

        "Perhaps   it's   some   relation   of   Pooh's,"  said
Christopher  Robin.  "What  about  a  nephew  or  an  uncle  or
something?"

        Kanga  agreed  that  this was probably what it was, and
said that they would have to call it by some name.

        "I shall  call  it  Pootel,"  said  Christopher  Robin.
"Henry Pootel for short."

        And just when it was decided, Henry Pootel wriggled out
of Kanga's  arms  and  jumped  to  the ground. To his great joy
Christopher Robin had left  the  door  open.  Never  had  Henry
Pootel  Piglet  run  so fast as he ran then, and he didn't stop
running until he had got quite close to his house. But when  he
was  a  hundred  yards  away he stopped running, and rolled the
rest of the way home, so as to get  his  own  nice  comfortable
colour again.

        So  Kanga  and  Roo  stayed  in  the  Forest. And every
Tuesday Roo spent the day with his  great  friend  Rabbit,  and
every  Tuesday  Kanga spent the day with her great friend Pooh,
teaching him to jump, and every Tuesday Piglet  spent  the  day
with his great friend Christopher Robin. So they were all happy
again.





10. Chapter 8 ...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, some time or never. He had  just
discovered  that  it would be never, and was trying to remember
what "it" was, and hoping it wasn't anything  nice,  when  Pooh
came up.


        <img src="img00012.gif" width=340 height=217>

        "Oh!  Piglet,"  said  Pooh excitedly, we're going on an
Expotition,  all  of  us,  with  things  to  eat.  To  discover
something."

        "To discover what?" said Piglet anxiously.

        "Oh! just something."

        "Nothing fierce?"

        "Christopher Robin didn't say anything about fierce. He
just said it had an 'x'."

        "It  isn't  their necks I mind," said Piglet earnestly.
"It's their teeth. But if Christopher Robin is coming  I  don't
mind anything."

        In a little while they were all ready at the top of the
Forest,  and  the  Expotition  started.  First came Christopher
Robin and Rabbit, then Piglet and Pooh; ther Kanga, with Roo in
her pocket, and Owl; then Eeyore; and, at the end,  in  a  long
line, all Rabbit's friends-and-relations.

        "I didn't ask them," explained Rabbit carelessly. "They
just came.  They  always  do.  They can march at the end, after
Eeyore."

        "What I say," said Eeyore, "is that it's unsettling.  I
didn't want to come on this Expo -- what Pooh said. I only came
to  oblige.  But  here I am; and if I am the end of the Expo --
what we're talking about -- then let me be  the  end.  But  if,
every  time  I  want  to  sit down for a little rest, I have to
brush   away    half    a    dozen    of    Rabbit's    smaller
friends-and-relations   first,  then  this  isn't  an  Expo  --
whatever it is -- at all, it's simply a Confused Noise.  That's
what I say."

        "I see what Eeyore means," said Owl. "If you ask me --"

        "I'm  not  asking  anybody,"  said  Eeyore.  "I'm  just
telling everybody. We can look for the North Pole,  or  we  can
play  'Here  we go gathering Nuts and May' with the end part of
an ants' nest. It's all the same to me."

        There was a shout from the top of the line.

        "Come on!" called Christopher Robin.

        "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  doesn't  do  them  any  Good, you know, sitting on
them," he went on, as he looked up  munching.  "Takes  all  the
Life  out  of  them.  Remember that another time, all of you. A
little Consideration, a little Thought for  Others,  makes  all
the difference."

        As  soon as he had finished his lunch Christopher Robin
whispered to Rabbit, and Rabbit said "Yes, yes, of course," and
they walked a little way up the stream together.

        "I didn't want the others to  hear,"  said  Christopher
Robin.

        "Quite so," said Rabbit, looking important.

        "It's  --  I wondered -- It's only -- Rabbit, I suppose
you don't know, What does the North Pole look like?"

        "Well," said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers. "Now you're
asking me."

        "I did know once, only I've sort  of  forgotten,"  said
Christopher Robin carelessly.

        "It's  a  funny  thing," said Rabbit, "but I've sort of
forgotten too, although I did know once."

        "I suppose it's just a pole stuck in the ground?"

        "Sure to be a pole," said Rabbit, "because  of  calling
it a pole, and if it's a pole, well, I should think it would be
sticking  in  the  ground,  shouldn't  you,  because there'd be
nowhere else to stick it."

        "Yes, that's what I thought."

        "The  only  thing,"  said  Rabbit,  "is,  where  is  it
sticking?"

        "That's  what  we're  looking  for,"  said  Christopher
Robin.

        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 Encyclopedia 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's 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

                                       DICSovERED
 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.

11. Chapter 9 ...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!

                                PIGLIT (ME)



        and on the other side:


                        IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP
 HELP!


        Then he put the paper in the bottle, and he corked  the
bottle  up  as  tightly  as  he  could, and he leant out of his
window as far as he could lean without falling in, and he threw
the bottle as far as he could throw --  splash!  --  and  in  a
little while it bobbed up again on the water; and he watched it
floating slowly away in the distance, until his eyes ached with
looking,  and  sometimes  he  thought  it  was  the bottle, and
sometimes he thought it was just a ripple on the water which he
was following, and then suddenly he knew that  he  would  never
see  it again and that he had done all that he could do to save
himself.

        "So now," he thought, "somebody else will  have  to  do
something,  and  I  hope  they will do it soon, because if they
don't I shall have to swim, which I can't, so I hope they do it
soon." And then he gave a very long sigh and said, "I wish Pooh
were here. It's so much more friendly with two."


        When the rain began Pooh was asleep. It rained, and  it
rained,  and it rained, and he slept and he slept and he slept.
He had had a tiring day. You remember  how  he  discovered  the
North  Pole;  well,  he  was  so  proud  of  this that he asked
Christopher Robin if there were any other Poles such as a  Bear
of Little Brain might discover.

        "There's  a South Pole," said Christopher Robin, "and I
expect there's an East Pole and  a  West  Pole,  though  people
don't  like  talking about them." Pooh was very excited when he
heard this, and suggested that they should have  an  Expotition
to discover the East Pole, but Christopher Robin had thought of
something  else  to do with Kanga; so Pooh went out to discover
the East Pole by himself. Whether he discovered it  or  not,  I
forget;  but he was so tired when he got home that, in the very
middle of his supper, after he had been eating for little  more
than  half-an-hour, he fell fast asleep in his chair, and slept
and slept and slept.

        Then suddenly he was dreaming. He was at the East Pole,
and it was a very cold pole with the coldest sort of  snow  and
ice all over it. He had found a bee-hive to sleep in, but there
wasn't room for his legs, so he had left them outside. And Wild
Woozles,  such  as  inhabit the East Pole, came and nibbled all
the fur off his legs to make Nests for  their  Young.  And  the
more  they  nibbled, the colder his legs got, until suddenly he
woke up with an Ow! -- and there he was, sitting in  his  chair
with his feet in the water, and water all round him!

        He splashed to his door and looked out....

        "This is Serious," said Pooh. "I must have an Escape."

        So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it
to a broad  branch  of his tree, well above the water, and then
he climbed down again and escaped with another pot .  .  .  and
when  the  whole Escape was finished, there was Pooh sitting on
his branch dangling his legs, and there, beside him,  were  ten
pots of honey....


        <img src="img00013.gif" width=550 height=290>


        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 he new
that for the first time in his life he was on  a  real  island.
Which  is  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?"

        "He's  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 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 know 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 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;  Ist  Mate,  P.  Bear)
coming over the sea to rescue him.. ..

        And  as  that  is really the end of the story, and I am
very tired after that last  sentence,  I  think  I  shall  stop
there.

12. Chapter 10 ...in which Christopher Robin gives a pooh 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.

        "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 whitches?)
        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 exited
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."



        <img src="img00014.gif" width=398 height=247>

        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 indiarubber 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.



        <img src="img00015.gif" width=466 height=686>

        "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.
Last-modified: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 15:57:38 GMT



