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! 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.
"Ithinkit's more to the right," said Piglet nervously. "What doyouthink, 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'vehadmine," 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 fir-cones for me," said Kanga, giving them a basket.
So they went to the Six Pine Trees, and threw fir-cones 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 Tiggersneverget 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 today, dear," said Kanga. "Another day."
"Well, if they're lost tomorrow, may I find them?"
"We'll see," said Kanga, and Roo, who knew whatthatmeant, 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 weweren'tlooking for, which might be just what wewerelooking for, really."
"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit.
"No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there wasgoingto 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, ofcourseI 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 Rabbitwouldtalk, but if nobody says anything except those twelve pots, Ithink, Piglet, I shall know where they're 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, Iamglad to see you," cried Rabbit.
IN WHICHPiglet 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 theyhadseen 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 SpotBelongs to Pooh.And here he wonders whatHe's going to do.Oh, bother, I forgot—It's Piglet's too.
This warm and sunny SpotBelongs to Pooh.And here he wonders whatHe's going to do.Oh, bother, I forgot—It's Piglet's too.
This warm and sunny SpotBelongs to Pooh.And here he wonders whatHe's going to do.Oh, bother, I forgot—It's Piglet's too.
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.
"WhatIthink," 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."
"WhatIthink," 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 seeeverybody," 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 hecouldget 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.
"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?"
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this, and in a little while they were knocking and ringing very cheerfully at Owl's door.
"Hallo, Owl," said Pooh. "I hope we're not too late for——I mean, how are you, Owl? Piglet and I just came to see how you were, because it's Thursday."
"Sit down, Pooh, sit down, Piglet," said Owl kindly. "Make yourselves comfortable."
They thanked him, and made themselves as comfortable as they could.
"Because, you see, Owl," said Pooh, "we've been hurrying, so as to be in time for—so as to see you before we went away again."
Owl nodded solemnly.
"Correct me if I am wrong," he said, "but am I right in supposing that it is a very Blusterous day outside?"
"Very," said Piglet, who was quietly thawing his ears, and wishing that he was safely back in his own house.
"I thought so," said Owl. "It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert, a portrait of whom you see upon the wall on your right, Piglet, while returning in the late forenoon from a——What's that?"
There was a loud cracking noise.
"Look out!" cried Pooh. "Mind the clock! Out of the way, Piglet! Piglet, I'm falling on you!"
"Help!" cried Piglet.
Pooh's side of the room was slowly tilting upwards and his chair began sliding down on Piglet's. The clock slithered gently along the mantelpiece, collecting vases on the way, until they all crashed together on to what had once been the floor, but was now trying to see what it looked like as a wall. Uncle Robert, who was going to be the new hearth-rug, and was bringing the rest of his wall with him as carpet, met Piglet's chair just as Piglet was expecting to leave it, and for a little while it became very difficult to remember which was really the north. Then there was another loud crack ... Owl's room collected itself feverishly ... and there was silence.
In a corner of the room, the tablecloth began to wriggle.
Then it wrapped itself into a ball and rolled across the room.
Then it jumped up and down once or twice, and put out two ears. It rolled across the room again, and unwound itself.
"Pooh," said Piglet nervously.
"Yes?" said one of the chairs.
"Where are we?"
"I'm not quite sure," said the chair.
"Are we—are we in Owl's House?"
"I think so, because we were just going to have tea, and we hadn't had it."
"Oh!" said Piglet. "Well, did Owlalwayshave a letter-box in his ceiling?"
"Has he?"
"Yes, look."
"I can't," said Pooh. "I'm face downwards under something, and that, Piglet, is a very bad position for looking at ceilings."
"Well, he has, Pooh."
"Perhaps he's changed it," said Pooh. "Just for a change."
There was a disturbance behind the table in the other corner of the room, and Owl was with them again.
"Ah, Piglet," said Owl, looking very much annoyed; "where's Pooh?"
"I'm not quite sure," said Pooh.
Owl turned at his voice, and frowned at as much of Pooh as he could see.
"Pooh," said Owl severely, "didyoudo that?"
"No," said Pooh humbly. "I don'tthinkso."
"Then who did?"
"I think it was the wind," said Piglet. "I think your house has blown down."
"Oh, is that it? I thought it was Pooh."
"No," said Pooh.
"If it was the wind," said Owl, considering the matter, "then it wasn't Pooh's fault. No blame can be attached to him." With these kind words he flew up to look at his new ceiling.
"Piglet!" called Pooh in a loud whisper.
Piglet leant down to him.
"Yes, Pooh?"
"Whatdid he say was attached to me?"
"He said he didn't blame you."
"Oh! I thought he meant—Oh, I see."
"Owl," said Piglet, "come down and help Pooh."
Owl, who was admiring his letter-box, flew down again. Together they pushed and pulled at the arm-chair, and in a little while Pooh came out from underneath, and was able to look round him again.
"Well!" said Owl. "This is a nice state of things!"
"What are we going to do, Pooh? Can you think of anything?" asked Piglet.
"Well, Ihadjust thought of something," said Pooh. "It was just a little thing I thought of." And he began to sing:
I lay on my chestAnd I thought it bestTo pretend I was having an evening rest;I lay on my tumAnd I tried to humBut nothing particular seemed to come.My face was flatOn the floor, and thatIs all very well for an acrobat;But it doesn't seem fairTo a Friendly BearTo stiffen him out with a basket-chair.And a sort of sqozeWhich grows and growsIs not too nice for his poor old nose,And a sort of squchIs much too muchFor his neck and his mouth and his ears and such.
I lay on my chestAnd I thought it bestTo pretend I was having an evening rest;I lay on my tumAnd I tried to humBut nothing particular seemed to come.My face was flatOn the floor, and thatIs all very well for an acrobat;But it doesn't seem fairTo a Friendly BearTo stiffen him out with a basket-chair.And a sort of sqozeWhich grows and growsIs not too nice for his poor old nose,And a sort of squchIs much too muchFor his neck and his mouth and his ears and such.
I lay on my chestAnd I thought it bestTo pretend I was having an evening rest;I lay on my tumAnd I tried to humBut nothing particular seemed to come.My face was flatOn the floor, and thatIs all very well for an acrobat;But it doesn't seem fairTo a Friendly BearTo stiffen him out with a basket-chair.And a sort of sqozeWhich grows and growsIs not too nice for his poor old nose,And a sort of squchIs much too muchFor his neck and his mouth and his ears and such.
I lay on my chest
And I thought it best
To pretend I was having an evening rest;
I lay on my tum
And I tried to hum
But nothing particular seemed to come.
My face was flat
On the floor, and that
Is all very well for an acrobat;
But it doesn't seem fair
To a Friendly Bear
To stiffen him out with a basket-chair.
And a sort of sqoze
Which grows and grows
Is not too nice for his poor old nose,
And a sort of squch
Is much too much
For his neck and his mouth and his ears and such.
"That was all," said Pooh.
Owl coughed in an unadmiring sort of way, and said that, if Pooh was sure thatwasall, they could now give their minds to the Problem of Escape.
"Because," said Owl, "we can't go out by what used to be the front door. Something's fallen on it."
"But how elsecanyou go out?" asked Piglet anxiously.
"That is the Problem, Piglet, to which I am asking Pooh to give his mind."
Pooh sat on the floor which had once been a wall, and gazed up at the ceiling which had once been another wall, with a front door in it which had once been a front door, and tried to give his mind to it.
"Could you fly up to the letter-box with Piglet on your back?" he asked.
"No," said Piglet quickly. "He couldn't."
Owl explained about the Necessary Dorsal Muscles. He had explained this to Pooh and Christopher Robin once before, and had been waiting ever since for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing which you can easily explain twice before anybody knows what you are talking about.
"Because you see, Owl, if we could get Piglet into the letter-box, he might squeeze through the place where the letters come, and climb down the tree and run for help."
Piglet said hurriedly that he had been getting bigger lately, and couldn'tpossibly, much as he would like to, and Owl said that he had had his letter-box made bigger lately in case he got bigger letters, so perhaps Pigletmight, and Piglet said, "But you said the necessary you-know-whatswouldn't," and Owl said, "No, theywon't, so it's no good thinking about it," and Piglet said "Then we'd better think of something else," and began to at once.
But Pooh's mind had gone back to the day when he had saved Piglet from the flood, and everybody had admired him so much; and as that didn't often happen he thought he would like it to happen again. And suddenly, just as it had come before, an idea came to him.
"Owl," said Pooh, "I have thought of something."
"Astute and Helpful Bear," said Owl.
Pooh looked proud at being called a stout and helpful bear, and said modestly that he just happened to think of it. You tied a piece of string to Piglet, and you flew up to the letter-box with the other end in your beak, and you pushed it through the wire and brought it down to the floor, and you and Pooh pulled hard at this end, and Piglet went slowly up at the other end. And there you were.
"And there Piglet is," said Owl. "If the string doesn't break."
"Supposing it does?" asked Piglet, wanting to know.
"Then we try another piece of string."
This was not very comforting to Piglet, because however many pieces of string they tried pulling up with, it would always be the same him coming down; but still, it did seem the only thing to do. So with one last look back in his mind at all the happy hours he had spent in the Forestnotbeing pulled up to the ceiling by a piece of string, Piglet nodded bravely at Pooh and said that it was a Very Clever pup-pup-pup Clever pup-pup Plan.
"It won't break," whispered Pooh comfortingly, "because you're a Small Animal, and I'll stand underneath, and if you save us all, it will be a Very Grand Thing to talk about afterwards, and perhaps I'll make up a Song, and people will say 'It was so grand what Piglet did that a Respectful Pooh Song was made about it."
Piglet felt much better after this, and when everything was ready, and he found himself slowly going up to the ceiling, he was so proud that he would have called out "Look atme!" if he hadn't been afraid that Pooh and Owl would let go of their end of the string and look at him.
"Up we go!" said Pooh cheerfully.
"The ascent is proceeding as expected," said Owl helpfully. Soon it was over. Piglet opened the letter-box and climbed in. Then, having untied himself, he began to squeeze into the slit, through which in the old days when front doorswerefront doors, many an unexpected letter that WOL had written to himself, had come slipping.
He squeezed and he squoze, and then with one last sqooze he was out. Happy and excited he turned round to squeak a last message to the prisoners.
"It's all right," he called through the letter-box. "Your tree is blown right over, Owl, and there's a branch across the door, but Christopher Robin and I can move it, and we'll bring a rope for Pooh, and I'll go and tell him now, and I can climb down quite easily, I mean it's dangerous but I can do it all right, and Christopher Robin and I will be back in about half-an-hour. Good-bye, Pooh!" And without waiting to hear Pooh's answering "Good-bye, and thank you, Piglet," he was off.
"Half-an-hour," said Owl, settling himself comfortably. "That will just give me time to finish that story I was telling you about my Uncle Robert—a portrait of whom you see underneath you. Now let me see, where was I? Oh, yes. It was on just such a blusterous day as this that my Uncle Robert——"
Pooh closed his eyes.
IN WHICHEeyore Finds the Wolery and Owl Moves Into It
Pooh had wandered into the Hundred Acre Wood, and was standing in front of what had once been Owl's House. It didn't look at all like a house now; it looked like a tree which had been blown down; and as soon as a house looks like that, it is time you tried to find another one. Pooh had had a Mysterious Missage underneath his front door that morning, saying, "I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT," and while he was wondering what it meant, Rabbit had come in and read it for him.
"I'm leaving one for all the others," said Rabbit, "and telling them what it means, and they'll all search too. I'm in a hurry, good-bye." And he had run off.
Pooh followed slowly. He had something better to do than to find a new house for Owl; he had to make up a Pooh song about the old one. Because he had promised Piglet days and days ago that he would, and whenever he and Piglet had met since, Piglet didn't actually say anything, but you knew at once why he didn't; and if anybody mentioned Hums or Trees or String or Storms-in-the-Night, Piglet's nose went all pink at the tip and he talked about something quite different in a hurried sort of way.
"But it isn't Easy," said Pooh to himself, as he looked at what had once been Owl's House. "Because Poetry and Hums aren't things which you get, they're things which getyou. And all you can do is to go where they can find you."
He waited hopefully....
"Well," said Pooh after a long wait, "I shall begin 'Here lies a tree' because it does, and then I'll see what happens."
This is what happened.
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)Was fond of when it stood on end,And Owl was talking to a friendCalled Me (in case you hadn't heard)When something Oo occurred.For lo! the wind was blusterousAnd flattened out his favourite tree;And things looked bad for him and we—Looked bad, I mean, for he and us—I've never known them wuss.Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:"Courage!" he said. "There's always hope.I want a thinnish piece of rope.Or, if there isn't any bringA thickish piece of string."So to the letter-box he rose,While Pooh and Owl said "Oh!" and "Hum!"And where the letters always come(Called "LETTERS ONLY") Piglet sqozeHis head and then his toes.O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!Did Piglet tremble? Did he blinch?No, No, he struggled inch by inchThrough LETTERS ONLY, as I knowBecause I saw him go.He ran and ran, and then he stoodAnd shouted, "Help for Owl, a birdAnd Pooh, a bear!" until he heardThe others coming through the woodAs quickly as they could."Help-help and Rescue!" Piglet criedAnd showed the others where to go.Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) hoAnd soon the door was opened wideAnd we were both outside!Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!Ho!
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)Was fond of when it stood on end,And Owl was talking to a friendCalled Me (in case you hadn't heard)When something Oo occurred.For lo! the wind was blusterousAnd flattened out his favourite tree;And things looked bad for him and we—Looked bad, I mean, for he and us—I've never known them wuss.Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:"Courage!" he said. "There's always hope.I want a thinnish piece of rope.Or, if there isn't any bringA thickish piece of string."So to the letter-box he rose,While Pooh and Owl said "Oh!" and "Hum!"And where the letters always come(Called "LETTERS ONLY") Piglet sqozeHis head and then his toes.O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!Did Piglet tremble? Did he blinch?No, No, he struggled inch by inchThrough LETTERS ONLY, as I knowBecause I saw him go.He ran and ran, and then he stoodAnd shouted, "Help for Owl, a birdAnd Pooh, a bear!" until he heardThe others coming through the woodAs quickly as they could."Help-help and Rescue!" Piglet criedAnd showed the others where to go.Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) hoAnd soon the door was opened wideAnd we were both outside!Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!Ho!
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)Was fond of when it stood on end,And Owl was talking to a friendCalled Me (in case you hadn't heard)When something Oo occurred.
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)
Was fond of when it stood on end,
And Owl was talking to a friend
Called Me (in case you hadn't heard)
When something Oo occurred.
For lo! the wind was blusterousAnd flattened out his favourite tree;And things looked bad for him and we—Looked bad, I mean, for he and us—I've never known them wuss.
For lo! the wind was blusterous
And flattened out his favourite tree;
And things looked bad for him and we—
Looked bad, I mean, for he and us—
I've never known them wuss.
Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:"Courage!" he said. "There's always hope.I want a thinnish piece of rope.Or, if there isn't any bringA thickish piece of string."
Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:
"Courage!" he said. "There's always hope.
I want a thinnish piece of rope.
Or, if there isn't any bring
A thickish piece of string."
So to the letter-box he rose,While Pooh and Owl said "Oh!" and "Hum!"And where the letters always come(Called "LETTERS ONLY") Piglet sqozeHis head and then his toes.
So to the letter-box he rose,
While Pooh and Owl said "Oh!" and "Hum!"
And where the letters always come
(Called "LETTERS ONLY") Piglet sqoze
His head and then his toes.
O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!Did Piglet tremble? Did he blinch?No, No, he struggled inch by inchThrough LETTERS ONLY, as I knowBecause I saw him go.
O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!
Did Piglet tremble? Did he blinch?
No, No, he struggled inch by inch
Through LETTERS ONLY, as I know
Because I saw him go.
He ran and ran, and then he stoodAnd shouted, "Help for Owl, a birdAnd Pooh, a bear!" until he heardThe others coming through the woodAs quickly as they could.
He ran and ran, and then he stood
And shouted, "Help for Owl, a bird
And Pooh, a bear!" until he heard
The others coming through the wood
As quickly as they could.
"Help-help and Rescue!" Piglet criedAnd showed the others where to go.Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) hoAnd soon the door was opened wideAnd we were both outside!
"Help-help and Rescue!" Piglet cried
And showed the others where to go.
Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) ho
And soon the door was opened wide
And we were both outside!
Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!Ho!
Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!
Ho!
"So there it is," said Pooh, when he had sung this to himself three times. "It's come different from what I thought it would, but it's come. Now I must go and sing it to Piglet."
I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT.
I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT.
"What's all this?" said Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
"What's the matter with his old house?" asked Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
"Nobody tells me," said Eeyore. "Nobody keeps me Informed. I make it seventeen days come Friday since anybody spoke to me."
"It certainly isn't seventeen days——"
"Come Friday," explained Eeyore.
"And today's Saturday," said Rabbit. "So that would make it eleven days. And I was here myself a week ago."
"Not conversing," said Eeyore. "Not first one and then the other. You said 'Hallo' and Flashed Past. I saw your tail in the distance as I was meditating my reply. Ihadthought of saying 'What?'—but, of course, it was then too late."
"Well, I was in a hurry."
"No Give and Take," Eeyore went on. "No Exchange of Thought: 'Hallo—What'——I mean, it gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person's tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation."
"It's your fault, Eeyore. You've never been to see any of us. You just stay here in this one corner of the Forest waiting for the others to come toyou. Why don't you go tothemsometimes?"
Eeyore was silent for a little while, thinking.
"There may be something in what you say, Rabbit," he said at last. "I must move about more. I must come and go."
"That's right, Eeyore. Drop in on any of us at any time, when you feel like it."
"Thank-you, Rabbit. And if anybody says in a Loud Voice 'Bother, it's Eeyore,' I can drop out again."
Rabbit stood on one leg for a moment.
"Well," he said, "I must be going."
"Good-bye," said Eeyore.
"What? Oh, good-bye. And if you do come across a house for Owl, you must let us know."
"I will give my mind to it," said Eeyore.
Rabbit went.
Pooh had found Piglet, and they were walking back to the Hundred Acre Wood together.
"Piglet," said Pooh a little shyly, after they had walked for some time without saying anything.
"Yes, Pooh?"
"Do you remember when I said that a Respectful Pooh Song might be written about You Know What?"
"Did you, Pooh?" said Piglet, getting a little pink round the nose. "Oh, yes, I believe you did."
"It's been written, Piglet."
The pink went slowly up Piglet's nose to his ears, and settled there.
"Has it, Pooh?" he asked huskily. "About—about——That Time When?——Do you mean really written?"
"Yes, Piglet."
The tips of Piglet's ears glowed suddenly, and he tried to say something; but even after he had husked once or twice, nothing came out. So Pooh went on.
"There are seven verses in it."
"Seven?" said Piglet as carelessly as he could. "You don't often getsevenverses in a Hum, do you, Pooh?"
"Never," said Pooh, "I don't suppose it'severbeen heard of before."
"Do the Others know yet?" asked Piglet, stopping for a moment to pick up a stick and throw it away.
"No," said Pooh. "And I wondered which you would like best. For me to hum it now, or to wait till we find the others, and then hum it to all of you."
Piglet thought for a little.
"I think what I'd like best, Pooh, is I'd like you to hum it to menow—and—andthento hum it to all of us. Because then Everybody would hear it, but I could say 'Oh, yes, Pooh's told me,' and pretend not to be listening."
So Pooh hummed it to him, all the seven verses and Piglet said nothing, but just stood and glowed. Never before had anyone sung ho for Piglet (PIGLET) ho all by himself. When it was over, he wanted to ask for one of the verses over again, but didn't quite like to. It was the verse beginning "O gallant Piglet," and it seemed to him a very thoughtful way of beginning a piece of poetry.
"Did I really do all that?" he said at last.
"Well," said Pooh, "in poetry—in a piece of poetry—well, youdidit, Piglet, because the poetry says you did. And that's how people know."
"Oh!" said Piglet. "Because I—I thought I did blinch a little. Just at first. And it says, 'Did he blinch no no.' That's why."
"You only blinched inside," said Pooh, "and that's the bravest way for a Very Small Animal not to blinch that there is."
Piglet sighed with happiness, and began to think about himself. He was BRAVE....
When they got to Owl's old house, they found everybody else there except Eeyore. Christopher Robin was telling them what to do, and Rabbit was telling them again directly afterwards, in case they hadn't heard, and then they were all doing it. They had got a rope and were pulling Owl's chairs and pictures and things out of his old house so as to be ready to put them into his new one. Kanga was down below tying the things on, and calling out to Owl, "You won't want this dirty old dish-cloth any more, will you, and what about this carpet, it's all in holes," and Owl was calling back indignantly, "Of course I do! It's just a question of arranging the furniture properly, and it isn't a dish-cloth, it's my shawl." Every now and then Roo fell in and came back on the rope with the next article, which flustered Kanga a little because she never knew where to look for him. So she got cross with Owl and said that his house was a Disgrace, all damp and dirty, and it was quite time it did tumble down. Look at that horrid bunch of toadstools growing out of the floor there! So Owl looked down, a little surprised because he didn't know about this, and then gave a short sarcastic laugh, and explained that that was his sponge, and that if people didn't know a perfectly ordinary bath-sponge when they saw it, things were coming to a pretty pass. "Well!" said Kanga, and Roo fell in quickly, crying, "Imustsee Owl's sponge! Oh, there it is! Oh, Owl! Owl, it isn't a sponge, it's a spudge! Do you know what a spudge is, Owl? It's when your sponge gets all——" and Kanga said, "Roo, dear!" very quickly, because that'snotthe way to talk to anybody who can spell TUESDAY.