Winnie-the-Pooh Page #7

"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

								


Pooh rubbed his nose again, and said that he hadn't thought of that. And
then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the
Heffalump would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up,
and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way
down.... When it would be too late.

Piglet said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it
was a Cunning Trap.

Pooh was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Heffalump
was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which
had to be thought about, and it was this. Where should they dig the
Very Deep Pit?

Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump
was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.

"But then he would see us digging it," said Pooh.

"Not if he was looking at the sky."

"He would Suspect," said Pooh, "if he happened to look down." He thought
for a long time and then added sadly, "It isn't as easy as I thought. I
suppose that's why Heffalumps hardly ever get caught."

"That must be it," said Piglet.

They sighed and got up; and when they had taken a few gorse prickles out
of themselves they sat down again; and all the time Pooh was saying to
himself, "If only I could think of something!" For he felt sure that a
Very Clever Brain could catch a Heffalump if only he knew the right way
to go about it.

"Suppose," he said to Piglet, "you wanted to catch me, how would you
do it?"

"Well," said Piglet, "I should do it like this. I should make a Trap,
and I should put a Jar of Honey in the Trap, and you would smell it, and
you would go in after it, and----"

"And I would go in after it," said Pooh excitedly, "only very carefully
so as not to hurt myself, and I would get to the Jar of Honey, and I
should lick round the edges first of all, pretending that there wasn't
any more, you know, and then I should walk away and think about it a
little, and then I should come back and start licking in the middle of
the jar, and then----"

"Yes, well never mind about that. There you would be, and there I should
catch you. Now the first thing to think of is, What do Heffalumps like?
I should think acorns, shouldn't you? We'll get a lot of----I say, wake
up, Pooh!"

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

"Honey," said Piglet to himself in a thoughtful way, as if it were now
settled. "I'll dig the pit, while you go and get the honey."

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

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

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

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

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

"No. Why do you want string?"

"To lead them home with."

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

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

"Good night!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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