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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.
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.
"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.
IT rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told
himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows
how old -- three, was it, or four? -- never had he seen so much
rain. Days and days and days.
"If only," he thought, as he looked out of the window,
"I had been in Pooh's house, or Christopher Robin's house, or
Rabbit's house when it began to rain, then I should have had
Company all this time, instead of being here all alone, with
nothing to do except wonder when it will stop." And he imagined
himself with Pooh, saying, "Did you ever see such rain, Pooh?"
and Pooh saying, "Isn't it awful, Piglet?" and Piglet saying,
"I wonder how it is over Christopher Robin's way," and Pooh
saying, "I should think poor old Rabbit is about flooded out by
this time." It would have been jolly to talk like this, and
really, it wasn't much good having anything exciting like
floods, if you couldn't share them with somebody.
For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in
which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the
little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and
the river, between whose steep banks they had played so
happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so
much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder
whether it would be coming into his bed soon.
"It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a
Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher
Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could
escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and
Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by -- by
Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by
water and I can't do anything."
It went on raining, and every day the water got a
little higher, until now it was nearly up to Piglet's window...
and still he hadn't done anything.
"There's Pooh," he thought to himself. "Pooh hasn't
much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly
things and they turn out right. There's Owl. Owl hasn't exactly
got Brain, but he Knows Things. He would know the Right Thing
to Do when Surrounded by Water. There's Rabbit. He hasn't
Learnt in Books, but he can always Think of a Clever Plan.
There's Kanga. She isn't Clever, Kanga isn't, but she would be
so anxious about Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do
without thinking about it. And then there's Eeyore And Eeyore
is so miserable anyhow that he wouldn't mind about this. But I
wonder what Christopher Robin would do?"
Then suddenly he remembered a story which Christopher
Robin had told him about a man on a desert island who had
written something in a bottle and thrown it in the sea; and
Piglet thought that if he wrote something in a bottle and threw
it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and rescue him!
He left the window and began to search his house, all
of it that wasn't under water, and at last he found a pencil
and a small piece of dry paper, and a bottle with a cork to it.
And he wrote on one side of the paper:
HELP!
PIGLIT (ME)
and on the other side:
IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP
HELP!
Then he put the paper in the bottle, and he corked the
bottle up as tightly as he could, and he leant out of his
window as far as he could lean without falling in, and he threw
the bottle as far as he could throw -- splash! -- and in a
little while it bobbed up again on the water; and he watched it
floating slowly away in the distance, until his eyes ached with
looking, and sometimes he thought it was the bottle, and
sometimes he thought it was just a ripple on the water which he
was following, and then suddenly he knew that he would never
see it again and that he had done all that he could do to save
himself.
"So now," he thought, "somebody else will have to do
something, and I hope they will do it soon, because if they
don't I shall have to swim, which I can't, so I hope they do it
soon." And then he gave a very long sigh and said, "I wish Pooh
were here. It's so much more friendly with two."
When the rain began Pooh was asleep. It rained, and it
rained, and it rained, and he slept and he slept and he slept.
He had had a tiring day. You remember how he discovered the
North Pole; well, he was so proud of this that he asked
Christopher Robin if there were any other Poles such as a Bear
of Little Brain might discover.
"There's a South Pole," said Christopher Robin, "and I
expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people
don't like talking about them." Pooh was very excited when he
heard this, and suggested that they should have an Expotition
to discover the East Pole, but Christopher Robin had thought of
something else to do with Kanga; so Pooh went out to discover
the East Pole by himself. Whether he discovered it or not, I
forget; but he was so tired when he got home that, in the very
middle of his supper, after he had been eating for little more
than half-an-hour, he fell fast asleep in his chair, and slept
and slept and slept.
Then suddenly he was dreaming. He was at the East Pole,
and it was a very cold pole with the coldest sort of snow and
ice all over it. He had found a bee-hive to sleep in, but there
wasn't room for his legs, so he had left them outside. And Wild
Woozles, such as inhabit the East Pole, came and nibbled all
the fur off his legs to make Nests for their Young. And the
more they nibbled, the colder his legs got, until suddenly he
woke up with an Ow! -- and there he was, sitting in his chair
with his feet in the water, and water all round him!
He splashed to his door and looked out....
"This is Serious," said Pooh. "I must have an Escape."
So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it
to a broad branch of his tree, well above the water, and then
he climbed down again and escaped with another pot . . . and
when the whole Escape was finished, there was Pooh sitting on
his branch dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were ten
pots of honey....
Two days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch,
dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were four pots of
honey....
Three days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his
branch, dangling his legs, and there beside him, was one pot of
honey.
Four days later, there was Pooh...
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that
Piglet's bottle came floating past him, and with one loud cry
of "Honey!" Pooh plunged into the water, seized the bottle, and
struggled back to his tree again.
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he opened it. "All that wet for
nothing. What's that bit of paper doing?"
He took it out and looked at it.
"It's a Missage," he said to himself, "that's what it
is. And that letter is a 'P,' and so is that, and so is that,
and 'P' means 'Pooh,' so it's a very important Missage to me,
and I can't read it. I must find Christopher Robin or Owl or
Piglet, one of those Clever Readers who can read things, and
they will tell me what this missage means. Only I can't swim.
Bother!"
Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Bear of
Very Little Brain, it was a good idea. He said to himself:
"If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a
jar floats, I can sit on the top of it, if it's a very big
jar."
So he took his biggest jar, and corked it up.
"All boats have to have a name," he said, "so I shall
call mine The Floating Bear." And with these words he dropped
his boat into the water and jumped in after it.
For a little while Pooh and The Floating Bear were
uncertain as to which of them was meant to be on the top, but
after trying one or two different positions, they settled down
with The Floating Bear underneath and Pooh triumphantly astride
it, paddling vigorously with his feet.
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.
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."
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.
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
IT rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told
himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows
how old -- three, was it, or four? -- never had he seen so much
rain. Days and days and days.
"If only," he thought, as he looked out of the window,
"I had been in Pooh's house, or Christopher Robin's house, or
Rabbit's house when it began to rain, then I should have had
Company all this time, instead of being here all alone, with
nothing to do except wonder when it will stop." And he imagined
himself with Pooh, saying, "Did you ever see such rain, Pooh?"
and Pooh saying, "Isn't it awful, Piglet?" and Piglet saying,
"I wonder how it is over Christopher Robin's way," and Pooh
saying, "I should think poor old Rabbit is about flooded out by
this time." It would have been jolly to talk like this, and
really, it wasn't much good having anything exciting like
floods, if you couldn't share them with somebody.
For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in
which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the
little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and
the river, between whose steep banks they had played so
happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so
much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder
whether it would be coming into his bed soon.
"It's a little Anxious," he said to himself, "to be a
Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher
Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could
escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and
Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by -- by
Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by
water and I can't do anything."
It went on raining, and every day the water got a
little higher, until now it was nearly up to Piglet's window...
and still he hadn't done anything.
"There's Pooh," he thought to himself. "Pooh hasn't
much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly
things and they turn out right. There's Owl. Owl hasn't exactly
got Brain, but he Knows Things. He would know the Right Thing
to Do when Surrounded by Water. There's Rabbit. He hasn't
Learnt in Books, but he can always Think of a Clever Plan.
There's Kanga. She isn't Clever, Kanga isn't, but she would be
so anxious about Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do
without thinking about it. And then there's Eeyore And Eeyore
is so miserable anyhow that he wouldn't mind about this. But I
wonder what Christopher Robin would do?"
Then suddenly he remembered a story which Christopher
Robin had told him about a man on a desert island who had
written something in a bottle and thrown it in the sea; and
Piglet thought that if he wrote something in a bottle and threw
it in the water, perhaps somebody would come and rescue him!
He left the window and began to search his house, all
of it that wasn't under water, and at last he found a pencil
and a small piece of dry paper, and a bottle with a cork to it.
And he wrote on one side of the paper:
HELP!
PIGLIT (ME)
and on the other side:
IT'S ME PIGLIT, HELP
HELP!
Then he put the paper in the bottle, and he corked the
bottle up as tightly as he could, and he leant out of his
window as far as he could lean without falling in, and he threw
the bottle as far as he could throw -- splash! -- and in a
little while it bobbed up again on the water; and he watched it
floating slowly away in the distance, until his eyes ached with
looking, and sometimes he thought it was the bottle, and
sometimes he thought it was just a ripple on the water which he
was following, and then suddenly he knew that he would never
see it again and that he had done all that he could do to save
himself.
"So now," he thought, "somebody else will have to do
something, and I hope they will do it soon, because if they
don't I shall have to swim, which I can't, so I hope they do it
soon." And then he gave a very long sigh and said, "I wish Pooh
were here. It's so much more friendly with two."
When the rain began Pooh was asleep. It rained, and it
rained, and it rained, and he slept and he slept and he slept.
He had had a tiring day. You remember how he discovered the
North Pole; well, he was so proud of this that he asked
Christopher Robin if there were any other Poles such as a Bear
of Little Brain might discover.
"There's a South Pole," said Christopher Robin, "and I
expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people
don't like talking about them." Pooh was very excited when he
heard this, and suggested that they should have an Expotition
to discover the East Pole, but Christopher Robin had thought of
something else to do with Kanga; so Pooh went out to discover
the East Pole by himself. Whether he discovered it or not, I
forget; but he was so tired when he got home that, in the very
middle of his supper, after he had been eating for little more
than half-an-hour, he fell fast asleep in his chair, and slept
and slept and slept.
Then suddenly he was dreaming. He was at the East Pole,
and it was a very cold pole with the coldest sort of snow and
ice all over it. He had found a bee-hive to sleep in, but there
wasn't room for his legs, so he had left them outside. And Wild
Woozles, such as inhabit the East Pole, came and nibbled all
the fur off his legs to make Nests for their Young. And the
more they nibbled, the colder his legs got, until suddenly he
woke up with an Ow! -- and there he was, sitting in his chair
with his feet in the water, and water all round him!
He splashed to his door and looked out....
"This is Serious," said Pooh. "I must have an Escape."
So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it
to a broad branch of his tree, well above the water, and then
he climbed down again and escaped with another pot . . . and
when the whole Escape was finished, there was Pooh sitting on
his branch dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were ten
pots of honey....
Two days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch,
dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were four pots of
honey....
Three days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his
branch, dangling his legs, and there beside him, was one pot of
honey.
Four days later, there was Pooh...
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that
Piglet's bottle came floating past him, and with one loud cry
of "Honey!" Pooh plunged into the water, seized the bottle, and
struggled back to his tree again.
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he opened it. "All that wet for
nothing. What's that bit of paper doing?"
He took it out and looked at it.
"It's a Missage," he said to himself, "that's what it
is. And that letter is a 'P,' and so is that, and so is that,
and 'P' means 'Pooh,' so it's a very important Missage to me,
and I can't read it. I must find Christopher Robin or Owl or
Piglet, one of those Clever Readers who can read things, and
they will tell me what this missage means. Only I can't swim.
Bother!"
Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Bear of
Very Little Brain, it was a good idea. He said to himself:
"If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a
jar floats, I can sit on the top of it, if it's a very big
jar."
So he took his biggest jar, and corked it up.
"All boats have to have a name," he said, "so I shall
call mine The Floating Bear." And with these words he dropped
his boat into the water and jumped in after it.
For a little while Pooh and The Floating Bear were
uncertain as to which of them was meant to be on the top, but
after trying one or two different positions, they settled down
with The Floating Bear underneath and Pooh triumphantly astride
it, paddling vigorously with his feet.
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.
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."
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.
"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.