The house at Pooh Corner
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'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, 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.
"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 Owl _always_ have 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