must get back and tell the others."
Eeyore looked at his sticks and then he looked at
Piglet.
"What did Rabbit say it was?" he asked.
"An A," said Piglet.
"Did you tell him?"
"No, Eeyore, I didn't. I expect he just knew."
"He knew? You mean this A thing is a thing Rabbit
knew?"
"Yes, Eeyore. He's clever, Rabbit is."
"Clever!" said Eeyore scornfully, putting a foot
heavily on his three sticks. "Education!" said Eeyore bitterly,
jumping on his six sticks. "What is Learning?" asked Eeyore as
he kicked his twelve sticks into the air. "A thing Rabbit
knows! Ha!"
"I think--" began Piglet nervously.
"Don't," said Eeyore.
"I think Violets are rather nice," said Piglet. And he
laid his bunch in front of Eeyore and scampered off.
Next morning the notice on Christopher Robins door
said:
GONE OUT
BACK SOON
C. R.
Which is why all the animals in the Forest-- except, of
course, the Spotted and Herbaceous Backson--now know what
Christopher Robin does in the mornings.
Chapter VI. In which Pooh invents a new game
and eeyore joins in
BY the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream
had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being
grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used
to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew
now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no
hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the little streams
higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly,
eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late.
There was a broad track, almost as broad as a road,
leading from the Outland to the Forest, but before it could
come to the Forest, it had to cross this river. So, where it
crossed, there was a wooden bridge, almost as broad as a road,
with wooden rails on each side of it. Christopher Robin could
just get his chin on to the top rail, if he wanted to, but it
was more fun to stand on the bottom rail, so that he could lean
right over, and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath
him. Pooh could get his chin on to the bottom rail he if wanted
to, but it was more fun to lie down and get his head under it,
and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him. And this
was the only way in which Piglet and Roo could watch the river
at all, because they were too small to reach the bottom rail.
So they would lie down and watch it . . . and it slipped away
very slowly, being in no hurry to get there.
One day, when Pooh was walking towards this bridge, he
was trying to make up a piece of poetry about fir-cones,
because there they were, lying about on each side of him, and
he felt singy. So he picked a fir-cone up, and looked at it,
and said to himself, "This is a very good fir-cone, and
something ought to rhyme to it." But he couldn't think of
anything. And then this came into his head suddenly:
Here is a myst'ry
About a little fir-tree.
Owl says it's his tree,
And Kanga says it's her tree.
"Which doesn't make sense," said Pooh, "because Kanga
doesn't live in a tree."
He had just come to the bridge; and not looking where
he was going, he tripped over something, and the fir-cone
jerked out of his paw into the river.
"Bother," said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the
bridge, and he went back to get another fir-cone which had a
rhyme to it. But then he thought that he would just look at the
river instead, because it was a peaceful sort of day, so he lay
down and looked at it, and it slipped slowly away beneath him .
. . and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping away too.
"That's funny," said Pooh. "I dropped it on the other
side," said Pooh, "and it came out on this side! I wonder if it
would do it again?" And he went back for some more fir-cones.
It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at
once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come
out first; and one of them did; but as they were both the same
size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win,
or the other one. So the next time he dropped one big one and
one little one, and the big one came out first, which was what
he had said it would do, and the little one came out last,
which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice . .
. and when he went home for tea, he had won thirty-six and lost
twenty-eight, which meant that he was-- that he had--well, you
take twenty-eight from thirty-six, and that's what he was.
Instead of the other way round.
And that was the beginning of the game called
Poohsticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and his friends
used to play on the edge of the Forest. But they played with
sticks instead of fir-cones, because they were easier to mark.
Now one day Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and Roo were all
playing Poohsticks together. They had dropped their sticks in
when Rabbit said "Go!" and then they had hurried across to the
other side of the bridge, and now they were all leaning over
the edge, waiting to see whose stick would come out first. But
it was a long time coming, because the river was very lazy that
day, and hardly seemed to mind if it didn't ever get there at
all.
"I can see mine!" cried Roo. "No, I can't, it's
something else. Can you see yours, Piglet? I thought I could
see mine, but I couldn't. There it is! No, it isn't. Can you
see yours, Pooh?"
"No," said Pooh.
"I expect my stick's stuck," said Roo. "Rabbit, my
stick's stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet?"
"They always take longer than you think," said Rabbit.
"How long do you think they'll take?" asked Roo.
"I can see yours, Piglet," said Pooh suddenly.
"Mine's a sort of greyish one," said Piglet, not daring
to lean too far over in case he fell in.
"Yes, that's what I can see. It's coming over on to my
side."
Rabbit leant over further than ever, looking for his,
and Roo wriggled up and down, calling out "Come on, stick!
Stick, stick, stick!" and Piglet got very excited because his
was the only one which had been seen, and that meant that he
was winning. "It's coming!" said Pooh.
"Are you sure it's mine?" squeaked Piglet excitedly.
"Yes, because it's grey. A big grey one. Here it comes!
A very--big--grey---- Oh, no, it isn't, it's Eeyore."
And out floated Eeyore.
"Eeyore!" cried everybody.
Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the
air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge.
"It's Eeyore!" cried Roo, terribly excited.
"Is that so?" said Eeyore, getting caught up by a
little eddy, and turning slowly round three times. "I
wondered."
"I didn't know you were playing," said Roo.
"I'm not," said Eeyore.
"Eeyore, what are you doing there?" said Rabbit.
"I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in
the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young
oak-tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the
river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he'll always get the
answer."
"But, Eeyore," said Pooh in distress, "what can we--I
mean, how shall we--do you think if we--"
"Yes," said Eeyore. "One of those would be just the
thing. Thank you, Pooh."
"He's going round and round," said Roo, much impressed.
"And why not?" said Eeyore coldly.
"I can swim too," said Roo proudly.
"Not round and round," said Eeyore. "It's much more
difficult. I didn't want to come swimming at all to-day," he
went on, revolving slowly. "But if, when in, I decide to
practise a slight circular movement from right to left--or
perhaps I should say," he added, as he got into another eddy,
"from left to right, just as it happens to occur to me, it is
nobody's business but my own."
There was a moment's silence while everybody thought.
"I've got a sort of idea," said Pooh at last, "but I
don't suppose it's a very good one."
"I don't suppose it is either," said Eeyore.
"Go on, Pooh," said Rabbit. "Let's have it."
"Well, if we threw stones and things into the river on
one side of Eeyore, the stones would make waves, and the waves
would wash him to the other side."
"That's a very good idea," said Rabbit, and Pooh looked
happy again.
"Very," said Eeyore.
"When I want to be washed, Pooh, I'll let you know."
"Supposing we hit him by mistake?" said Piglet
anxiously.
"Or supposing you missed him by mistake," said Eeyore.
"Think of all the possibilities, Piglet, before you settle down
to enjoy yourselves."
But Pooh had got the biggest stone he could carry, and
was leaning over the bridge, holding it in his paws.
"I'm not throwing it, I'm dropping it, Eeyore," he
explained. "And then I can't miss--I mean I can't hit you.
Could you stop turning round for a moment, because it muddles
me rather?"
"No," said Eeyore. "I like turning round."
Rabbit began to feel that it was time he took command.
"Now, Pooh," he said, "when I say 'Now!' you can drop
it. Eeyore, when I say 'Now!' Pooh will drop his stone."
"Thank you very much, Rabbit, but I expect I shall
know."
"Are you ready, Pooh? Piglet, give Pooh a little more
room. Get back a bit there, Roo. Are you ready?"
"No," said Eeyore.
"Now!" said Rabbit.
Pooh dropped his stone. There was a loud splash, and
Eeyore disappeared....
It was an anxious moment for the watchers on the
bridge. They looked and looked . . . and even the sight of
Piglet's stick coming out a little in front of Rabbit's didn't
cheer them up as much as you would have expected. And then,
just as Pooh was beginning to think that he must have chosen
the wrong stone or the wrong river or the wrong day for his
Idea, something grey showed for a moment by the river bank . .
. and it got slowly bigger and bigger . . . and at last it was
Eeyore coming, out.
With a shout they rushed off the bridge, and pushed and
pulled at him; and soon he was standing among them again on dry
land.
"Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!" said Piglet, feeling him.
Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to
Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite
a long time.
"Well done, Pooh," said Rabbit kindly. "That was a good
idea of ours."
"What was?" asked Eeyore.
"Hooshing you to the bank like that."
"Hooshing me?" said Eeyore in surprise. "Hooshing me?
You didn't think I was hooshed, did you? I dived. Pooh dropped
a large stone on me, and so as not to be struck heavily on the
chest, I dived and swam to the bank."
"You didn't really," whispered Piglet to Pooh, so as to
comfort him.
"I didn't think I did," said Pooh anxiously.
"It's just Eeyore," said Piglet. "I thought your Idea
was a very good Idea."
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because
when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of
Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very
Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into
the open and has other people looking at it. And, anyhow,
Eeyore was in the river, and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done
any harm.
"How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he
dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.
"I didn't," said Eeyore.
"But how--"
"I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.
"Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"
"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side
of the river--thinking, if any of you know what that
means--when I received a loud BOUNCE."
"Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.
"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.
"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the
slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from
behind, you slip. What did you think I did?"
"But who did it?" asked Roo.
Eeyore didn't answer.
"I expect it was Tigger," said Piglet nervously.
"But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an
Accident? I mean--"
"I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of
the river I didn't stop to say to myself, 'Is this a Hearty
Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?' I just floated to the
surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.' If you know what I
mean."
"And where was Tigger?" asked Rabbit.
Before Eeyore could answer, there was a loud noise
behind them, and through the hedge came Tigger himself.
"Hallo, everybody," said Tigger cheerfully.
"Hallo, Tigger," said Roo.
Rabbit became very important suddenly.
"Tigger," he said solemnly, "what happened just now?"
"Just when?" said Tigger a little uncomfortably.
"When you bounced Eeyore into the river."
"I didn't bounce him."
"You bounced me," said Eeyore gruffly.
"I didn't really. I had a cough, and I happened to be
behind Eeyore, and I said 'Grrrr--oppp--ptschschschz.'"
"Why?" said Rabbit, helping Piglet up, and dusting him.
"It's all right, Piglet."
"It took me by surprise," said Piglet nervously.
"That's what I call bouncing," said Eeyore. "Taking
people by surprise. Very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Tigger
being in the Forest," he went on, "because it's a large Forest,
and there's plenty of room to bounce in it. But I don't see why
he should come into my little corner of it, and bounce there.
It isn't as if there was anything very wonderful about my
little corner. Of course for people who like cold, wet, ugly
bits it is something rather special, but otherwise it's just a
corner, and if anybody feels bouncy "
"I didn't bounce, I coughed," said Tigger crossly.
"Bouncy or coffy, it's all the same at the bottom of
the river."
"Well," said Rabbit, "all I can say Is--well, here's
Christopher Robin, so he can say it."
Christopher Robin came down from the Forest to the
bridge, feeling all sunny and careless, and just as if twice
nineteen didn't matter a bit, as it didn't on such a happy
afternoon, and he thought that if he stood on the bottom rail
of the bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping
slowly away beneath him, then he would suddenly know everything
that there was to be known, and he would be able to tell Pooh,
who wasn't quite sure about some of it. Rut when he got to the
bridge and saw all the animals there, then he knew that it
wasn't that kind of afternoon, but the other kind, when you
wanted to do something.
"It's like this, Christopher Robin," began Rabbit.
"Tigger--"
"No, I didn't," said Tigger.
"Well, anyhow, there I was," said Eeyore.
"But I don't think he meant to," said Pooh.
"He just is bouncy," said Piglet, "and he can't help
it."
"Try bouncing me, Tigger," said Roo eagerly. "Eeyore,
Tigger's going to try me. Piglet, do you think--"
"Yes, yes," said Rabbit, "we don't all want to speak at
once. The point is, what does Christopher Robin think about
it?"
"All I did was I coughed," said Tigger.
"He bounced," said Eeyore.
"Well, I sort of boffed," said Tigger.
"Hush!" said Rabbit, holding up his paw what does
Christopher Robin think about it all? That's the point."
"Well," said Christopher Robin, not quite sure what it
was all about, "I think--"
"Yes?" said everybody.
"I think we all ought to play Poohsticks.!"
So they did. And Eeyore, who had never played it
before, won more times than anybody else; and Roo fell in
twice, the first time by accident and the second time on
purpose, because he suddenly saw Kanga coming from the Forest,
and he knew he'd have to go to bed anyhow. So then Rabbit said
he'd go with them; and Tigger and Eeyore went off together,
because Eeyore wanted to tell Tigger How to Win at Poohsticks,
which you do by letting your stick drop in a twitchy sort of
way, if you understand what I mean, Tigger; and Christopher
Robin and Pooh and Piglet were left on the bridge by
themselves.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath them,
saying nothing, and the river said nothing too, for it felt
very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon.
"Tigger is all right really," said Piglet lazily.
"Of course he is," said Christopher Robin.
"Everybody is really," said Pooh. "That's what I
think," said Pooh. "But I don't suppose I'm right," he said.
"Of course you are," said Christopher Robin.
Chapter VII. In which Tigger is unbounced
ONE day Rabbit and Piglet were sitting outside Pooh's front
door listening to Rabbit, and Pooh was sitting with them. It
was a drowsy summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of
gentle sounds, which all seemed to be saying to Pooh, "Don't
listen to Rabbit, listen to me." So he got into a comfortable
position for not listening to Rabbit, and from time to time he
opened his eyes to say "Ah!" and then closed them again to say
"True," and from time to time Rabbit said, "You see what I
mean, Piglet " very earnestly, and Piglet nodded earnestly to
show that he did.
"In fact," said Rabbit, coming to the end of it at
last, "Tigger's getting so Bouncy nowadays that it's time we
taught him a lesson. Don't you think so, Piglet?"
Piglet said that Tigger was very Bouncy, and that if
they could think of a way of unbouncing him, it would be a Very
Good Idea. "Just what I feel," said Rabbit. "What do you say,
Pooh?"
Pooh opened his eyes with a jerk and said, "Extremely."
"Extremely what?" asked Rabbit.
"What you were saying," said Pooh. "Undoubtably."
Piglet gave Pooh a stiffening sort of nudge, and Pooh,
who felt more and more that he was somewhere else, got up
slowly and began to look for himself.
"But how shall we do it?" asked Piglet. "What sort of a
lesson, Rabbit?"
"That's the point," said Rabbit.
The word "lesson" came back to Pooh as one he had heard
before somewhere.
"There's a thing called Twy-stymes," he said.
"Christopher Robin tried to teach it to me once, but it
didn't."
"What didn't?" said Rabbit.
"Didn't what?" said Piglet
Pooh shook his head.
"I don't know," he said. "It just didn't. What are we
talking about?"
"Pooh," said Piglet reproachfully, "haven't you been
listening to what Rabbit was saying?"
"I listened, but I had a small piece of fluff in my
ear. Could you say it again, please, Rabbit?"
Rabbit never minded saying things again, so he asked
where he should begin from; and when Pooh had said from the
moment when the fluff got in his ear, and Rabbit had asked when
that was, and Pooh had said he didn't know because he hadn't
heard properly, Piglet settled it all by saying that what they
were trying to do was, they were just trying to think of a way
to get the bounces out of Tigger, because however much you
liked him, you couldn't deny it, he did bounce.
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
"There's too much of him," said Rabbit, "that's what it
comes to."
Pooh tried to think, and all he could think of was
something which didn't help at all. So he hummed it very
quietly to himself.
If Rabbit
Was bigger
And fatter
And stronger,
Or bigger
Than Tigger,
If Tigger was smaller,
Then Tigger's bad habit
Of bouncing at Rabbit
Would matter
No longer,
If Rabbit
Was taller.
"What was Pooh saying?" asked Rabbit. "Any good?"
"No," said Pooh sadly. "No good."
"Well, I've got an idea," said Rabbit, "and here it is.
We take Tigger for a long explore, somewhere where he's never
been, and we lose him there, and next morning we find him
again, and--mark my words--he'll be a different Tigger
altogether."
"Why?" said Pooh.
"Because he'll be a Humble Tigger. Because he'll be a
Sad Tigger, a Melancholy Tigger, a Small and Sorry Tigger, an
Oh-Rabbit-I-am-glad-to-see-you Tigger. That's why."
"Will he be glad to see me and Piglet, too?"
"Of course."
"That's good," said Pooh.
"I should hate him to go on being Sad," said Piglet
doubtfully.
"Tiggers never go on being Sad," explained Rabbit.
"They get over it with Astonishing Rapidity. I asked Owl, just
to make sure, and he said that that's what they always get over
it with. But if we can make Tigger feel Small and Sad just for
five minutes, we shall have done a good deed."
"Would Christopher Robin think so?" asked Piglet.
"Yes," said Rabbit. "He'd say 'You've done a good deed,
Piglet. I would have done it myself, only I happened to be
doing something else. Thank you, Piglet.' And Pooh, of course."
Piglet felt very glad about this, and he saw at once
that what they were going to do to Tigger was a good thing to
do, and as Pooh and Rabbit were doing it with him, it was a
thing which even a Very Small Animal could wake up in the
morning and be comfortable about doing. So the only question
was, where should they lose Tigger?
"We'll take him to the North Pole," said Rabbit,
"because it was a very long explore finding it, so it will be a
very long explore for Tigger un-finding it again."
It was now Pooh's turn to feel very glad, because it
was he who had first found the North Pole, and when they got
there, Tigger would see a notice which said, "Discovered by
Pooh, Pooh found it," and then Tigger would know, which perhaps
he didn't now, the sort of Bear Pooh was. That sort of Bear.
So it was arranged that they should start next morning,
and that Rabbit, who lived near Kanga and Roo and Tigger,
should now go home and ask Tigger what he was doing to-morrow,
because if he wasn't doing anything, what about coming for an
explore and getting Pooh and Piglet to come too? And if Tigger
said "Yes" that would be all right, and if he said "No "
"He won't," said Rabbit. "Leave it to me." And he went
off busily.
The next day was quite a different day. Instead of
being hot and sunny, it was cold and misty. Pooh didn't mind
for himself, but when he thought of all the honey the bees
wouldn't be making, a cold and misty day always made him feel
sorry for them. He said so to Piglet when Piglet came to fetch
him, and Piglet said that he wasn't thinking of that so much,
but of how cold and miserable it would be being lost all day
and night on the top of the Forest. But when he and Pooh had
got to Rabbit's house, Rabbit said it was just the day for
them, because Tigger always bounced on ahead of everybody, and
as soon as he got out of sight, they would hurry away in the
other direction, and he would never see them again.
"Not never?" said Piglet.
"Well, not until we find him again, Piglet. To-morrow,
or whenever it is. Come on. He's waiting for us."
When they got to Kanga's house, they found that Roo was
waiting too, being a great friend of Tigger's, which made it
Awkward; but Rabbit whispered "Leave this to me" behind his paw
to Pooh, and went up to Kanga.
"I don't think Roo had better come," he said. "Not
to-day."
"Why not?" said Roo, who wasn't supposed to be
listening.
"Nasty cold day," said Rabbit, shaking his head. "And
you were coughing this morning."
"How do you know?" asked Roo indignantly.
"Oh, Roo, you never told me," said Kanga reproachfully.
"It was a biscuit cough," said Roo, "not one you tell
about."
"I think not to-day, dear. Another day."
"To-morrow?" said Roo hopefully.
"We'll see," said Kanga.
"You're always seeing, and nothing ever happens," said
Roo sadly.
"Nobody could see on a day like this, Roo," said
Rabbit. "I don't expect we shall get very far, and then this
afternoon we'll all--we'll all-- we'll--ah, Tigger, there you
are. Come on. Goodbye, Roo! This afternoon we'll--come on,
Pooh! All ready? That's right. Come on."
So they went. At first Pooh and Rabbit and Piglet
walked together, and Tigger ran round them in circles, and
then, when the path got narrower, Rabbit, Piglet and Pooh
walked one after another, and Tigger ran round them in oblongs,
and by-and-by, when the gorse got very prickly on each side of
the path, Tigger ran up and down in front of them, and
sometimes he bounced into Rabbit and sometimes he didn't. And
as they got higher, the mist got thicker, so that Tigger kept
disappearing, and then when you thought he wasn't there, there
he was again, saying "I say, come on," and before you could say
anything, there he wasn't.
Rabbit turned round and nudged Piglet. "The next time,"
he said. "Tell Pooh."
"The next time," said Piglet to Pooh.
"The next what?" said Pooh to Piglet.
Tigger appeared suddenly, bounced into Rabbit, and
disappeared again. "Now!" said Rabbit. He jumped into a hollow
by the side of the path, and Pooh and Piglet jumped after him.
They crouched in the bracken, listening. The Forest was very
silent when you stopped and listened to it. They could see
nothing and hear nothing.
"H'sh!" said Rabbit.
"I am," said Pooh.
There was a pattering noise . . . then silence again.
"Hallo!" said Tigger, and he sounded so close suddenly
that Piglet would have jumped if Pooh hadn't accidentally been
sitting on most of him.
"Where are you?" called Tigger.
Rabbit nudged Pooh, and Pooh looked about for Piglet to
nudge, but couldn't find him, and Piglet went on breathing wet
bracken as quietly as he could, and felt very brave and
excited.
"That's funny," said Tigger.
There was a moment's silence, and then they heard him
pattering off again. For a little longer they waited, until the
Forest had become so still that it almost frightened them, and
then Rabbit got up and stretched himself.
"Well?" he whispered proudly. "There we are I Just as I
said."
"I've been thinking," said Pooh, "and I think "
"No," said Rabbit. "Don't. Run. Come on." And they all
hurried off, Rabbit leading the way.
"Now," said Rabbit, after they had gone a little way,
"we can talk. What were you going to say, Pooh?"
"Nothing much. Why are we going along here?"
"Because it's the way home."
"Oh!" said Pooh.
"I think it's more to the right," said Piglet
nervously. "What do you think, Pooh?"
Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one of them
was the right, and he knew that when you had decided which one
of them was the right, then the other one was the left, but he
never could remember how to begin.
"Well," he said slowly.
"Come on," said Rabbit. "I know it's this way."
They went on. Ten minutes later they stopped again.
"It's very silly," said Rabbit, "but just for the
moment I-- Ah, of course. Come on.". . .
"Here we are," said Rabbit ten minutes later. "No,
we're not.". . .
"Now," said Rabbit ten minutes later, "I think we ought
to be getting--or are we a little bit more to the right than I
thought?". . .
"It's a funny thing," said Rabbit ten minutes later,
"how everything, looks the same in a mist. Have you noticed it,
Pooh?"
Pooh said that he had.
"Lucky we know the Forest so well, or we might get
lost," said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave the careless
laugh which you give when you know the Forest so well that you
can't get lost.
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just
wanted to be sure of you."
When Tigger had finished waiting for the others to
catch him up, and they hadn't, and when he had got tired of
having nobody to say, "I say, come on" to, he thought he would
go home. So he trotted back; and the first thing Kanga said
when she saw him was, "There's a good Tigger. You're just in
time for your Strengthening Medicine," and she poured it out
for him. Roo said proudly, "I've had mine," and Tigger
swallowed his and said, "So have I," and then he and Roo pushed
each other about in a friendly way, and Tigger accidentally
knocked over one or two chairs by accident, and Roo
accidentally knocked over one on purpose, and Kanga said, "Now
then, run along."
"Where shall we run along to?" asked Roo.
"You can go and collect some fircones for me," said
Kanga, giving them a basket.
So they went to the Six Pine Trees, and threw fircones
at each other until they had forgotten what they came for, and
they left the basket under the trees and went back to dinner.
And it was just as they were finishing dinner that Christopher
Robin put his head in at the door.
"Where's Pooh?" he asked.
"Tigger dear, where's Pooh?" said Kanga. Tigger
explained what had happened at the same time that Roo was
explaining about his Biscuit Cough and Kanga was telling them
not both to talk at once, so it was some time before
Christopher Robin guessed that Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit were
all lost in the mist on the top of the Forest.
"It's a funny thing about Tiggers," whispered Tigger to
Roo, "how Tiggers never get lost."
"Why don't they, Tigger?"
"They just don't," explained Tigger. "That's how it
is."
"Well," said Christopher Robin, "we shall have to go
and find them, that's all. Come on, Tigger."
"I shall have to go and find them," explained Tigger to
Roo.
"May I find them too?" asked Roo eagerly.
"I think not to-day, dear," said Kanga. "Another day."
"Well, if they're lost to-morrow, may I find them?"
"We'll see," said Kanga, and Roo, who knew what that
meant, went into a corner and practised jumping out at himself,
partly because he wanted to practise this, and partly because
he didn't want Christopher Robin and Tigger to think that he
minded when they went off without him.
"The fact is," said Rabbit, "we've missed our way
somehow."
They were having a rest in a small sand-pit on the top
of the Forest. Pooh was getting rather tired of that sand-pit,
and suspected it of following them about, because whichever
direction they started in, they always ended up at it, and each
time, as it came through the mist at them, Rabbit said
triumphantly, "now I know where we are!" and Pooh said sadly,
"So do I," and Piglet said nothing. He had tried to think of
something to say, but the only thing he could think of was,
"Help, help!" and it seemed silly to say that, when he had Pooh
and Rabbit with him.
"Well," said Rabbit, after a long silence in which
nobody thanked him for the nice walk they were having, "we'd
better get on, I
suppose. Which way shall we try?"
"How would it be," said Pooh slowly, "if, as soon as
we're out of sight of this Pit, we try to find it again?"
"What's the good of that?" said Rabbit.
"Well," said Pooh, "we keep looking for Home and not
finding it, so I thought that if we looked for this Pit, we'd
be sure not to find it, which would be a Good Thing, because
then we might find something that we weren't looking for, which
might be just what we were looking for, really."
"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit.
"No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was
going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened
to it on the way."
"If I walked away from this Pit, and then walked back
to it, of course I should find it."
"Well, I thought perhaps you wouldn't," said Pooh. "I
just thought."
"Try," said Piglet suddenly. "We'll wait here for you."
Rabbit gave a laugh to show how silly Piglet was, and
walked into the mist. After he had gone a hundred yards, he
turned and walked back again
. . . and after Pooh and Piglet had waited twenty minutes
for him, Pooh got up.
"I just thought," said Pooh. "Now then, Piglet, let's
go home."
"But, Pooh," cried Piglet, all excited, "do you know
the way?"
"No," said Pooh. "But there are twelve pots of honey in
my cupboard, and they've been calling to me for hours. I
couldn't hear them properly before, because Rabbit would talk,
but if nobody says anything except those twelve pots, I think,
Piglet, I shall know where they are calling from. Come on."
They walked off together; and for a long time Piglet
said nothing, so as not to interrupt the pots; and then
suddenly he made a squeaky noise . . . and an oo-noise . . .
because now he began to know where he was; but he still didn't
dare to say so out loud, in case he wasn't. And just when he
was getting so sure of himself that it didn't matter whether
the pots went on calling or not, there was a shout from in
front of them, and out of the mist came Christopher Robin.
"Oh, there you are," said Christopher Robin carelessly,
trying to pretend that he hadn't been Anxious.
"Here we are," said Pooh.
"Where's Rabbit?"
"I don't know," said Pooh.
"Oh--well, I expect Tigger will find him. He's sort of
looking for you all."
"Well," said Pooh, "I've got to go home for something,
and so has Piglet, because we haven't had it yet, and "
"I'll come and watch you," said Christopher Robin.
So he went home with Pooh, and watched him for quite a
long time... and all the time he was watching, Tigger was
tearing round the Forest
making loud yapping noises for Rabbit. And at last a very
Small and Sorry Rabbit heard him. And the Small and Sorry
Rabbit rushed through the mist at the noise, and it suddenly
turned into Tigger; a friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large
and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all,
in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce.
"Oh, Tigger, I am glad to see you," cried Rabbit.
Chapter VIII. In which Piglet does
a very grand thing
HALF-WAY between Pooh's house and Piglet's house was a
Thoughtful Spot where they met sometimes when they had decided
to go and see each
other, and as it was warm and out of the wind they would
sit down there for a little and wonder what they would do now
that they had seen each other. One day when they had decided
not to do anything, Pooh made up a verse about it, so that
everybody should know what the place was for.
This warm and sunny Spot
Belongs to Pooh.
And here he wonders what
He's going to do.
Oh, bother, I forgot--
It's Piglet's too.
Now one autumn morning when the wind had blown all the
leaves off the trees in the night, and was trying to blow the
branches off, Pooh and Piglet were sitting in the Thoughtful
Spot and wondering.
"What I think," said Pooh, "is I think we'll go to Pooh
Corner and see Eeyore, because perhaps his house has been blown
down, and perhaps he'd like us to build it again."
"What I think," said Piglet, "is I think we'll go and
see Christopher Robin, only he won't be there, so we can't."
"Let's go and see everybody," said Pooh. "Because when
you've been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly go
into somebody's house, and he says, 'Hallo, Pooh, you're just
in time for a little smackerel of something,' and you are, then
it's what I call a Friendly Day."
Piglet thought that they ought to have a Reason for
going to see everybody, like Looking for Small or Organizing an
Expotition, if Pooh could think of something
Pooh could.
"We'll go because it's Thursday," he said, "and we'll
go to wish everybody a Very Happy Thursday. Come on, Piglet."
They got up; and when Piglet had sat down again,
because he didn't know the wind was so strong, and had been
helped up by Pooh, they started off. They went to Pooh's house
first, and luckily Pooh was at home just as they got there, so
he asked them in, and they had some, and then they went on to
Kanga's house, holding on to each other, and shouting "Isn't
it?" and "What?" and "I can't hear." By the time they got to
Kanga's house they were so buffeted that they stayed to lunch.
Just at first it seemed rather cold outside afterwards, so they
pushed on to Rabbit's as quickly as they could.
"We've come to wish you a Very Happy Thursday," said
Pooh, when he had gone in and out once or twice just to make
sure that he could get
out again.
"Why, what's going to happen on Thursday?" asked
Rabbit, and when Pooh had explained, and Rabbit, whose life was
made up of Important
Things, said, "Oh, I thought you'd really come about
something," they sat down for a little . . . and by-and-by Pooh
and Piglet went on again. The wind was behind them now, so they
didn't have to shout.
"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never
understands anything."
Christopher Robin was at home by this time, because it
was the afternoon, and he was so glad to see them that they
stayed there until very nearly tea-time, and then they had a
Very Nearly tea, which is one you forget about afterwards, and
hurried on to Pooh Corner, so as to see Eeyore before it was
too late to have a Proper Tea with Owl.
"Hallo, Eeyore," they called out cheerfully.
"Ah!" said Eeyore. "Lost your way?"
"We just came to see you," said Piglet. "And to see how
your house was. Look, Pooh, it's still standing!"
"I know," said Eeyore. "Very odd. Somebody ought to
have come down and pushed it over."
"We wondered whether the wind would blow it down," said
Pooh.
"Ah, that's why nobody's bothered, I suppose. I thought
perhaps they'd forgotten."
"Well, we're very glad to see you, Eeyore, and now
we're going on to see Owl."
"That's right. You'll like Owl. He flew past a day or
two ago and noticed me. He didn't actually say anything, mind
you, but he knew it was me. Very friendly of him, I thought.
Encouraging."
Pooh and Piglet shuffled about a little and said,
"Well, good-bye, Eeyore" as lingeringly as they could, but they
had a long way to go, and wanted to be getting on.
"Good-bye," said Eeyore. "Mind you don't get blown
away, little Piglet. You'd be missed. People would say 'Where's
little Piglet been blown to?'--really wanting to know. Well,
good-bye. And thank you for happening to pass me."
"Good-bye," said Pooh and Piglet for the last time, and
they pushed on to Owl's house.
The wind was against them now, and Piglet's ears
streamed behind him like banners as he fought his way along,
and it seemed hours before he got them into the shelter of the
Hundred Acre Wood and they stood up straight again, to listen,
a little nervously, to the roaring of the gale among the
tree-tops. '