The house at Pooh Corner
is! No, it isn't. Can you see yours, Pooh?"
"No," said Pooh.
"I expect my stick's stuck," said Roo. "Rabbit, my stick's stuck. Is
your stick stuck, Piglet?"
"They always take longer than you think," said Rabbit.
"How long do you _think_ they'll take?" asked Roo.
"I can see yours, Piglet," said Pooh suddenly.
"Mine's a sort of greyish one," said Piglet, not daring to lean too far
over in case he fell in.
"Yes, that's what I can see. It's coming over on to my side."
Rabbit leant over further than ever, looking for his, and Roo wriggled
up and down, calling out "Come on, stick! Stick, stick, stick!" and
Piglet got very excited because his was the only one which had been
seen, and that meant that he was winning.
"It's coming!" said Pooh.
"Are you _sure_ it's mine?" squeaked Piglet excitedly.
"Yes, because it's grey. A big grey one. Here it comes! A
very--big--grey----Oh, no, it isn't, it's Eeyore."
And out floated Eeyore.
"Eeyore!" cried everybody.
Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the air, came
Eeyore from beneath the bridge.
"It's Eeyore!" cried Roo, terribly excited.
"Is that so?" said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy, and
turning slowly round three times. "I wondered."
"I didn't know you were playing," said Roo.
"I'm not," said Eeyore.
"Eeyore, what _are_ you doing there?" said Rabbit.
"I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground?
Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong.
Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit
time, and he'll always get the answer."
"But, Eeyore," said Pooh in distress, "what can we--I mean, how shall
we--do you think if we----"
"Yes," said Eeyore. "One of those would be just the thing. Thank you,
Pooh."
"He's going _round_ and _round_," said Roo, much impressed.
"And why not?" said Eeyore coldly.
"I can swim too," said Roo proudly.
"Not round and round," said Eeyore. "It's much more difficult. I didn't
want to come swimming at all today," he went on, revolving slowly. "But
if, when in, I decide to practise a slight circular movement from right
to left--or perhaps I should say," he added, as he got into another
eddy, "from left to right, just as it happens to occur to me, it is
nobody's business but my own."
There was a moment's silence while everybody thought.
"I've got a sort of idea," said Pooh at last, "but I don't suppose it's
a very good one."
"I don't suppose it is either," said Eeyore.
"Go on, Pooh," said Rabbit. "Let's have it."
"Well, if we all threw stones and things into the river on _one_ side
of Eeyore, the stones would make waves, and the waves would wash him to
the other side."
"That's a very good idea," said Rabbit, and Pooh looked happy again.
"Very," said Eeyore. "When I want to be washed, Pooh, I'll let you
know."
"Supposing we hit him by mistake?" said Piglet anxiously.
"Or supposing you missed him by mistake," said Eeyore. "Think of all
the possibilities, Piglet, before you settle down to enjoy yourselves."
But Pooh had got the biggest stone he could carry, and was leaning over
the bridge, holding it in his paws.
"I'm not throwing it, I'm dropping it, Eeyore," he explained. "And then
I can't miss--I mean I can't hit you. _Could_ you stop turning round
for a moment, because it muddles me rather?"
"No," said Eeyore. "I _like_ turning round."
Rabbit began to feel that it was time he took command.
"Now, Pooh," he said, "when I say 'Now!' you can drop it. Eeyore, when
I say 'Now!' Pooh will drop his stone."
"Thank you very much, Rabbit, but I expect I shall know."
"Are you ready, Pooh? Piglet, give Pooh a little more room. Get back a
bit there, Roo. Are you ready?"
"No," said Eeyore.
"_Now!_" said Rabbit.
Pooh dropped his stone. There was a loud splash, and Eeyore
disappeared....
It was an anxious moment for the watchers on the bridge. They looked
and looked ... and even the sight of Piglet's stick coming out a little
in front of Rabbit's didn't cheer them up as much as you would have
expected. And then, just as Pooh was beginning to think that he must
have chosen the wrong stone or the wrong river or the wrong day for his
Idea, something grey showed for a moment by the river bank ... and it
got slowly bigger and bigger ... and at last it was Eeyore coming out.
With a shout they rushed off the bridge, and pushed and pulled at him;
and soon he was standing among them again on dry land.
"Oh, Eeyore, you _are_ wet!" said Piglet, feeling him.
Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what
happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.
"Well done, Pooh," said Rabbit kindly. "That was a good idea of ours."
"What was?" asked Eeyore.
"Hooshing you to the bank like that."
"_Hooshing_ me?" said Eeyore in surprise. "Hooshing _me_? You didn't
think I was _hooshed_, did you? I dived. Pooh dropped a large stone on
me, and so as not to be struck heavily on the chest, I dived and swam
to the bank."
"You didn't really," whispered Piglet to Pooh, so as to comfort him.
"I didn't _think_ I did," said Pooh anxiously.
"It's just Eeyore," said Piglet. "_I_ thought your Idea was a very good
Idea."
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you are a
Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes
that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different
when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. And,
anyhow, Eeyore _was_ in the river, and now he _wasn't_, so he hadn't
done any harm.
"How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he dried him with
Piglet's handkerchief.
"I didn't," said Eeyore.
"But how----"
"I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.
"Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"
"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side of the
river--thinking, if any of you know what that means, when I received a
loud BOUNCE."
"Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.
"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.
"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank of a
river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What did
you think I did?"
"But who did it?" asked Roo.
Eeyore didn't answer.
"I expect it was Tigger," said Piglet nervously.
"But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an Accident? I mean----"
"I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river I
didn't stop to say to myself, '_Is_ this a Hearty Joke, or is it the
Merest Accident?' I just floated to the surface, and said to myself,
'It's wet.' If you know what I mean."
"And where was Tigger?" asked Rabbit.
Before Eeyore could answer, there was a loud noise behind them, and
through the hedge came Tigger himself.
"Hallo, everybody," said Tigger cheerfully.
"Hallo, Tigger," said Roo.
Rabbit became very important suddenly.
"Tigger," he said solemnly, "what happened just now?"
"Just when?" said Tigger a little uncomfortably.
"When you bounced Eeyore into the river."
"I didn't bounce him."
"You bounced me," said Eeyore gruffly.
"I didn't really. I had a cough, and I happened to be behind Eeyore,
and I said '_Grrrr--oppp--ptschschschz_.'"
"Why?" said Rabbit, helping Piglet up, and dusting him. "It's all
right, Piglet."
"It took me by surprise," said Piglet nervously.
"That's what I call bouncing," said Eeyore. "Taking people by surprise.
Very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Tigger being in the Forest," he
went on, "because it's a large Forest, and there's plenty of room to
bounce in it. But I don't see why he should come into _my_ little
corner of it, and bounce there. It isn't as if there was anything very
wonderful about my little corner. Of course for people who like cold,
wet, ugly bits it _is_ something rather special, but otherwise it's
just a corner, and if anybody feels bouncy----"
"I didn't bounce, I coughed," said Tigger crossly.
"Bouncy or coffy, it's all the same at the bottom of the river."
"Well," said Rabbit, "all I can say is--well, here's Christopher Robin,
so _he_ can say it."
Christopher Robin came down from the Forest to the bridge, feeling
all sunny and careless, and just as if twice nineteen didn't matter a
bit, as it didn't on such a happy afternoon, and he thought that if he
stood on the bottom rail of the bridge, and leant over, and watched
the river slipping slowly away beneath him, then he would suddenly
know everything that there was to be known, and he would be able to
tell Pooh, who wasn't quite sure about some of it. But when he got to
the bridge and saw all the animals there, then he knew that it wasn't
that kind of afternoon, but the other kind, when you wanted to _do_
something.
"It's like this, Christopher Robin," began Rabbit. "Tigger----"
"No, I didn't," said Tigger.
"Well, anyhow, there I was," said Eeyore.
"But I don't think he meant to," said Pooh.
"He just _is_ bouncy," said Piglet, "and he can't help it."
"Try bouncing _me_, Tigger," said Roo eagerly. "Eeyore, Tigger's going
to try _me_. Piglet, do you think----"
"Yes, yes," said Rabbit, "we don't all want to speak at once. The point
is, what does Christopher Robin think about it?"
"All I did was I coughed," said Tigger.
"He bounced," said Eeyore.
"Well, I sort of boffed," said Tigger.
"Hush!" said Rabbit, holding up his paw. "What does Christopher Robin
think about it all? That's the point."
"Well," said Christopher Robin, not quite sure what it was all about,
"_I_ think----"
"Yes?" said everybody.
"_I_ think we all ought to play Poohsticks."
So they did. And Eeyore, who had never played it before, won more times
than anybody else; and Roo fell in twice, the first time by accident
and the second time on purpose, because he suddenly saw Kanga coming
from the Forest, and he knew he'd have to go to bed anyhow. So then
Rabbit said he'd go with them; and Tigger and Eeyore went off together,
because Eeyore wanted to tell Tigger How to Win at Poohsticks, which
you do by letting your stick drop in a twitchy sort of way, if you
understand what I mean, Tigger; and Christopher Robin and Pooh and
Piglet were left on the bridge by themselves.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath them, saying nothing,
and the river said nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on
this summer afternoon.
"Tigger is all right _really_," said Piglet lazily.
"Of course he is," said Christopher Robin.
"Everybody is _really_," said Pooh. "That's what _I_ think," said Pooh.
"But I don't suppose I'm right," he said.
"Of course you are," said Christopher Robin.
CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH _Tigger ls Unbounced_
One day Rabbit and Piglet were sitting outside Pooh's front door
listening to Rabbit, and Pooh was sitting with them. It was a drowsy
summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle sounds, which all
seemed to be saying to Pooh, "Don't listen to Rabbit, listen to me."
So he got into a comfortable position for not listening to Rabbit, and
from time to time he opened his eyes to say "Ah!" and then closed them
again to say "True," and from time to time Rabbit said, "You see what I
mean, Piglet" very earnestly, and Piglet nodded earnestly to show that
he did.
"In fact," said Rabbit, coming to the end of it at last, "Tigger's
getting so Bouncy nowadays that it's time we taught him a lesson. Don't
you think so, Piglet?"
Piglet said that Tigger _was_ very Bouncy, and that if they could think
of a way of unbouncing him, it would be a Very Good Idea.
"Just what I feel," said Rabbit. "What do _you_ say, Pooh?"
Pooh opened his eyes with a jerk and said, "Extremely."