Winnie-the-Pooh Page #6

"Winnie-the-Pooh" is a delightful children's book written by A. A. Milne. Set in the Hundred Acre Wood, the story follows the adventures of a lovable bear named Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, including Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, and Owl. Each chapter brings a new escapade, often involving honey, Pooh's favorite treat. From searching for the North Pole to getting stuck in Rabbit's front door, the characters embark on whimsical journeys full of humor, friendship, and simple joys. The book's charm lies in its gentle lessons about kindness, imagination, and the importance of treasuring the little things in life.

• Children

								

went all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST.

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

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

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

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

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

"It means the Thing to Do."

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

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

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

"I didn't sneeze."

"Yes, you did, Owl."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For some time now Pooh had been saying "Yes" and "No" in turn, with his
eyes shut, to all that Owl was saying, and having said, "Yes, yes," last
time, he said "No, not at all," now, without really knowing what Owl was
talking about.

"Didn't you see them?" said Owl, a little surprised. "Come and look at
them now."

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

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

Pooh nodded.

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

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

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

"Who?"

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

"Fond of it?"

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

                 *        *        *        *        *

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

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




                               CHAPTER V

                    IN WHICH PIGLET MEETS A HEFFALUMP


One day, when Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were
all talking together, Christopher Robin finished the mouthful he was
eating and said carelessly: "I saw a Heffalump to-day, Piglet."

"What was it doing?" asked Piglet.

"Just lumping along," said Christopher Robin. "I don't think it saw
me."

"I saw one once," said Piglet. "At least, I think I did," he said. "Only
perhaps it wasn't."

"So did I," said Pooh, wondering what a Heffalump was like.

"You don't often see them," said Christopher Robin carelessly.

"Not now," said Piglet.

"Not at this time of year," said Pooh.

Then they all talked about something else, until it was time for Pooh
and Piglet to go home together. At first as they stumped along the path
which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn't say much to each other;
but when they came to the stream and had helped each other across the
stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the
heather, they began to talk in a friendly way about this and that, and
Piglet said, "If you see what I mean, Pooh," and Pooh said, "It's just
what I think myself, Piglet," and Piglet said, "But, on the other hand,
Pooh, we must remember," and Pooh said, "Quite true, Piglet, although I
had forgotten it for the moment." And then, just as they came to the Six
Pine Trees, Pooh looked round to see that nobody else was listening, and
said in a very solemn voice:

"Piglet, I have decided something."

"What have you decided, Pooh?"

"I have decided to catch a Heffalump."

Pooh nodded his head several times as he said this, and waited for
Piglet to say "How?" or "Pooh, you couldn't!" or something helpful of
that sort, but Piglet said nothing. The fact was Piglet was wishing that
he had thought about it first.

"I shall do it," said Pooh, after waiting a little longer, "by means of
a trap. And it must be a Cunning Trap, so you will have to help me,
Piglet."

"Pooh," said Piglet, feeling quite happy again now, "I will." And then
he said, "How shall we do it?" and Pooh said, "That's just it. How?" And
then they sat down together to think it out.

Pooh's first idea was that they should dig a Very Deep Pit, and then the
Heffalump would come along and fall into the Pit, and----

"Why?" said Piglet.

"Why what?" said Pooh.

"Why would he fall in?"

Pooh rubbed his nose with his paw, and said that the Heffalump might be
walking along, humming a little song, and looking up at the sky,
wondering if it would rain, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit
until he was half-way down, when it would be too late.

Piglet said that this was a very good Trap, but supposing it were
raining already?
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