The house at Pooh Corner
"And I said to myself: The others will be sorry if I'm getting myself
all cold. They haven't got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff that's
blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think, but if it goes
on snowing for another six weeks or so, one of them will begin to say
to himself: 'Eeyore can't be so very much too Hot about three o'clock
in the morning.' And then it will Get About. And they'll be Sorry."
"Oh, Eeyore!" said Christopher Robin, feeling very sorry already.
"I don't mean you, Christopher Robin. You're different. So what it all
comes to is that I built myself a house down by my little wood."
"Did you really? How exciting!"
"The really exciting part," said Eeyore in his most melancholy voice,
"is that when I left it this morning it was there, and when I came back
it wasn't. Not at all, very natural, and it was only Eeyore's house.
But still I just wondered."
Christopher Robin didn't stop to wonder. He was already back in _his_
house, putting on his waterproof hat, his waterproof boots and his
waterproof macintosh as fast as he could.
"We'll go and look for it at once," he called out to Eeyore.
"Sometimes," said Eeyore, "when people have quite finished taking a
person's house, there are one or two bits which they don't want and are
rather glad for the person to take back, if you know what I mean. So I
thought if we just went----"
"Come on," said Christopher Robin, and off they hurried, and in a very
little time they got to the corner of the field by the side of the
pine-wood, where Eeyore's house wasn't any longer.
"There!" said Eeyore. "Not a stick of it left! Of course, I've still
got all this snow to do what I like with. One mustn't complain."
But Christopher Robin wasn't listening to Eeyore, he was listening to
something else.
"Can't you hear it?" he asked.
"What is it? Somebody laughing?"
"Listen."
They both listened ... and they heard a deep gruff voice saying in a
singing voice that the more it snowed the more it went on snowing, and
a small high voice tiddely-pomming in between.
"It's Pooh," said Christopher Robin excitedly....
"Possibly," said Eeyore.
"_And_ Piglet!" said Christopher Robin excitedly.
"Probably," said Eeyore. "What we _want_ is a Trained Bloodhound."
The words of the song changed suddenly.
"_We've finished our HOUSE!_" sang the gruff voice.
"_Tiddely pom!_" sang the squeaky one.
"_It's a beautiful HOUSE...._"
"_Tiddely pom...._"
"_I wish it were MINE...._"
"_Tiddely pom...._"
"Pooh!" shouted Christopher Robin....
The singers on the gate stopped suddenly.
"It's Christopher Robin!" said Pooh eagerly.
"He's round by the place where we got all those sticks from," said
Piglet.
"Come on," said Pooh.
They climbed down their gate and hurried round the corner of the wood,
Pooh making welcoming noises all the way.
"Why, here _is_ Eeyore," said Pooh, when he had finished hugging
Christopher Robin, and he nudged Piglet, and Piglet nudged him, and
they thought to themselves what a lovely surprise they had got ready.
"Hallo, Eeyore."
"Same to you, Pooh Bear, and twice on Thursdays," said Eeyore gloomily.
Before Pooh could say: "Why Thursdays?" Christopher Robin began to
explain the sad story of Eeyore's Lost House. And Pooh and Piglet
listened, and their eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger.
"_Where_ did you say it was?" asked Pooh.
"Just here," said Eeyore.
"Made of sticks?"
"Yes."
"Oh!" said Piglet.
"What?" said Eeyore.
"I just said 'Oh!'" said Piglet nervously. And so as to seem quite at
ease he hummed Tiddely-pom once or twice in a what-shall-we-do-now kind
of way.
"You're sure it _was_ a house?" said Pooh. "I mean, you're sure the
house was just here?"
"Of course I am," said Eeyore. And he murmured to himself, "No brain at
all some of them."
"Why, what's the matter, Pooh?" asked Christopher Robin.
"Well," said Pooh.... "The fact _is_," said Pooh.... "Well, the fact
_is_," said Pooh.... "You see," said Pooh.... "It's like this," said
Pooh, and something seemed to tell him that he wasn't explaining very
well, and he nudged Piglet again.
"It's like this," said Piglet quickly.... "Only warmer," he added after
deep thought.
"What's warmer?"
"The other side of the wood, where Eeyore's house is."
"_My_ house?" said Eeyore. "My house was here."
"No," said Piglet firmly. "The other side of the wood."
"Because of being warmer," said Pooh.
"But I ought to _know_----"
"Come and look," said Piglet simply, and he led the way.
"There wouldn't be _two_ houses," said Pooh. "Not so close together."
They came round the corner, and there was Eeyore's house, looking as
comfy as anything.
"There you are," said Piglet.
"Inside as well as outside," said Pooh proudly.
Eeyore went inside ... and came out again.
"It's a remarkable thing," he said. "It _is_ my house, and I built it
where I said I did, so the wind must have blown it here. And the wind
blew it right over the wood, and blew it down here, and here it is as
good as ever. In fact, better in places."
"Much better," said Pooh and Piglet together.
"It just shows what can be done by taking a little trouble," said
Eeyore. "Do you see, Pooh? Do you see, Piglet? Brains first and then
Hard Work. Look at it! _That's_ the way to build a house," said Eeyore
proudly.
* * * * *
So they left him in it; and Christopher Robin went back to lunch with
his friends Pooh and Piglet, and on the way they told him of the Awful
Mistake they had made. And when he had finished laughing, they all sang
the Outdoor Song for Snowy Weather the rest of the way home, Piglet,
who was still not quite sure of his voice, putting in the tiddely-poms
again.
"And I know it _seems_ easy," said Piglet to himself, "but it isn't
_every one_ who could do it."
CHAPTER II
IN WHICH _Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast_
Winnie-the-pooh woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and
listened. Then he got out of bed, and lit his candle, and stumped
across the room to see if anybody was trying to get into his
honey-cupboard, and they weren't, so he stumped back again, blew out
his candle, and got into bed. Then he heard the noise again.
"Is that you, Piglet?" he said.
But it wasn't.
"Come in, Christopher Robin," he said.
But Christopher Robin didn't.
"Tell me about it tomorrow, Eeyore," said Pooh sleepily.
But the noise went on.
"_Worraworraworraworraworra_," said Whatever-it-was, and Pooh found
that he wasn't asleep after all.
"What can it be?" he thought. "There are lots of noises in
the Forest, but this is a different one. It isn't a growl,
and it isn't a purr, and it isn't a bark, and it isn't the
noise-you-make-before-beginning-a-piece-of-poetry, but it's a noise
of some kind, made by a strange animal. And he's making it outside my
door. So I shall get up and ask him not to do it."
He got out of bed and opened his front door.
"Hallo!" said Pooh, in case there was anything outside.
"Hallo!" said Whatever-it-was.
"Oh!" said Pooh. "Hallo!"
"Hallo!"
"Oh, _there_ you are!" said Pooh. "Hallo!"
"Hallo!" said the Strange Animal, wondering how long this was going on.
Pooh was just going to say "Hallo!" for the fourth time when he thought
that he wouldn't, so he said: "Who is it?" instead.
"Me," said a voice.
"Oh!" said Pooh. "Well, come here."
So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the candle he and
Pooh looked at each other.
"I'm Pooh," said Pooh.
"I'm Tigger," said Tigger.
"Oh!" said Pooh, for he had never seen an animal like this before.
"Does Christopher Robin know about you?"
"Of course he does," said Tigger.
"Well," said Pooh, "it's the middle of the night, which is a good time
for going to sleep. And tomorrow morning we'll have some honey for
breakfast. Do Tiggers like honey?"
"They like everything," said Tigger cheerfully.
"Then if they like going to sleep on the floor, I'll go back to bed,"
said Pooh, "and we'll do things in the morning. Good night." And he got
back into bed and went fast asleep.
When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he saw was Tigger,
sitting in front of the glass and looking at himself.
"Hallo!" said Pooh.
"Hallo!" said Tigger. "I've found somebody just like me. I thought I
was the only one of them."
Pooh got out of bed, and began to explain what a looking-glass was, but
just as he was getting to the interesting part, Tigger said:
"Excuse me a moment, but there's something climbing up your table,"
and with one loud _Worraworraworraworraworra_ he jumped at the end
of the tablecloth, pulled it to the ground, wrapped himself up in it
three times, rolled to the other end of the room, and, after a terrible
struggle, got his head into the daylight again, and said cheerfully:
"Have I won?"
"That's my tablecloth," said Pooh, as he began to unwind Tigger.
"I wondered what it was," said Tigger.
"It goes on the table and you put things on it."
"Then why did it try to bite me when I wasn't looking?"
"I don't _think_ it did," said Pooh.
"It tried," said Tigger, "but I was too quick for it."
Pooh put the cloth back on the table, and he put a large honey-pot on
the cloth, and they sat down to breakfast. And as soon as they sat
down, Tigger took a large mouthful of honey ... and he looked up at the
ceiling with his head on one side, and made exploring noises with his
tongue and considering noises, and what-have-we-got-_here_ noises ...
and then he said in a very decided voice:
"Tiggers don't like honey."
"Oh!" said Pooh, and tried to make it sound Sad and Regretful. "I
thought they liked everything."
"Everything except honey," said Tigger.
Pooh felt rather pleased about this, and said that, as soon as he had
finished his own breakfast, he would take Tigger round to Piglet's
house, and Tigger could try some of Piglet's haycorns.
"Thank you, Pooh," said Tigger, "because haycorns is really what
Tiggers like best."
So after breakfast they went round to see Piglet, and Pooh explained as
they went that Piglet was a Very Small Animal who didn't like bouncing,
and asked Tigger not to be too Bouncy just at first. And Tigger, who
had been hiding behind trees and jumping out on Pooh's shadow when it
wasn't looking, said that Tiggers were only bouncy before breakfast,
and that as soon as they had had a few haycorns they became Quiet and
Refined. So by and by they knocked at the door of Piglet's house.
"Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet.
"Hallo, Piglet. This is Tigger."
"Oh, is it?" said Piglet, and he edged round to the other side of the
table. "I thought Tiggers were smaller than that."
"Not the big ones," said Tigger.
"They like haycorns," said Pooh, "so that's what we've come for,
because poor Tigger hasn't had any breakfast yet."
Piglet pushed the bowl of haycorns towards Tigger, and said: "Help
yourself," and then he got close up to Pooh and felt much braver, and
said, "So you're Tigger? Well, well!" in a careless sort of voice. But
Tigger said nothing because his mouth was full of haycorns....
After a long munching noise he said:
"Ee-ers o i a-ors."
And when Pooh and Piglet said "What?" he said "Skoos ee," and went
outside for a moment.
When he came back he said firmly:
"Tiggers don't like haycorns."
"But you said they liked everything except honey," said Pooh.
"Everything except honey and haycorns," explained Tigger.
When he heard this Pooh said, "Oh, I see!" and Piglet, who was rather
glad that Tiggers didn't like haycorns, said, "What about thistles?"
"Thistles," said Tigger, "is what Tiggers like best."
"Then let's go along and see Eeyore," said Piglet.