The house at Pooh Corner
"Extremely what?" asked Rabbit.
"What you were saying," said Pooh. "Undoubtably."
Piglet gave Pooh a stiffening sort of nudge, and Pooh, who felt more
and more that he was somewhere else, got up slowly and began to look
for himself.
"But how shall we do it?" asked Piglet. "What sort of a lesson, Rabbit?"
"That's the point," said Rabbit.
The word "lesson" came back to Pooh as one he had heard before
somewhere.
"There's a thing called Twy-stymes," he said. "Christopher Robin tried
to teach it to me once, but it didn't."
"What didn't?" said Rabbit.
"Didn't what?" said Piglet.
Pooh shook his head.
"I don't know," he said. "It just didn't. What are we talking about?"
"Pooh," said Piglet reproachfully, "haven't you been listening to what
Rabbit was saying?"
"I listened, but I had a small piece of fluff in my ear. Could you say
it again, please, Rabbit?"
Rabbit never minded saying things again, so he asked where he should
begin from; and when Pooh had said from the moment when the fluff got
in his ear, and Rabbit had asked when that was, and Pooh had said he
didn't know because he hadn't heard properly, Piglet settled it all by
saying that what they were trying to do was, they were just trying to
think of a way to get the bounces out of Tigger, because however much
you liked him, you couldn't deny it, he _did_ bounce.
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
"There's too much of him," said Rabbit, "that's what it comes to."
Pooh tried to think, and all he could think of was something which
didn't help at all. So he hummed it very quietly to himself.
If Rabbit
Was bigger
And fatter
And stronger,
Or bigger
Than Tigger,
If Tigger was smaller,
Then Tigger's bad habit
Of bouncing at Rabbit
Would matter
No longer,
If Rabbit
Was taller.
"What was Pooh saying?" asked Rabbit. "Any good?"
"No," said Pooh sadly. "No good."
"Well, I've got an idea," said Rabbit, "and here it is. We take Tigger
for a long explore, somewhere where he's never been, and we lose him
there, and next morning we find him again, and--mark my words--he'll be
a different Tigger altogether."
"Why?" said Pooh.
"Because he'll be a Humble Tigger. Because he'll be a Sad
Tigger, a Melancholy Tigger, a Small and Sorry Tigger, an
Oh-Rabbit-I-_am_-glad-to-see-you Tigger. That's why."
"Will he be glad to see me and Piglet, too?"
"Of course."
"That's good," said Pooh.
"I should hate him to go _on_ being Sad," said Piglet doubtfully.
"Tiggers never go on being Sad," explained Rabbit. "They get over it
with Astonishing Rapidity. I asked Owl, just to make sure, and he said
that that's what they always get over it with. But if we can make
Tigger feel Small and Sad just for five minutes, we shall have done a
good deed."
"Would Christopher Robin think so?" asked Piglet.
"Yes," said Rabbit. "He'd say 'You've done a good deed, Piglet. I would
have done it myself, only I happened to be doing something else. Thank
you, Piglet.' And Pooh, of course."
Piglet felt very glad about this, and he saw at once that what they
were going to do to Tigger was a good thing to do, and as Pooh and
Rabbit were doing it with him, it was a thing which even a Very Small
Animal could wake up in the morning and be comfortable about doing. So
the only question was, where should they lose Tigger?
"We'll take him to the North Pole," said Rabbit, "because it was a very
long explore finding it, so it will be a very long explore for Tigger
unfinding it again."
It was now Pooh's turn to feel very glad, because it was he who had
first found the North Pole, and when they got there, Tigger would see a
notice which said, "Discovered by Pooh, Pooh found it," and then Tigger
would know, which perhaps he didn't know, the sort of Bear Pooh was.
_That_ sort of Bear.
So it was arranged that they should start next morning, and that
Rabbit, who lived near Kanga and Roo and Tigger, should now go home
and ask Tigger what he was doing tomorrow, because if he wasn't doing
anything, what about coming for an explore and getting Pooh and Piglet
to come too? And if Tigger said "Yes" that would be all right, and if
he said "No"----
"He won't," said Rabbit. "Leave it to me." And he went off busily.
The next day was quite a different day. Instead of being hot and sunny,
it was cold and misty. Pooh didn't mind for himself, but when he
thought of all the honey the bees wouldn't be making, a cold and misty
day always made him feel sorry for them. He said so to Piglet when
Piglet came to fetch him, and Piglet said that he wasn't thinking of
that so much, but of how cold and miserable it would be being lost all
day and night on the top of the Forest. But when he and Pooh had got
to Rabbit's house, Rabbit said it was just the day for them, because
Tigger always bounced on ahead of everybody, and as soon as he got out
of sight, they would hurry away in the other direction, and he would
never see them again.
"Not never?" said Piglet.
"Well, not until we find him again, Piglet. Tomorrow, or whenever it
is. Come on. He's waiting for us."
When they got to Kanga's house, they found that Roo was waiting too,
being a great friend of Tigger's, which made it Awkward; but Rabbit
whispered "Leave this to me" behind his paw to Pooh, and went up to
Kanga.
"I don't think Roo had better come," he said. "Not today."
"Why not?" said Roo, who wasn't supposed to be listening.
"Nasty cold day," said Rabbit, shaking his head. "And you were coughing
this morning."
"How do you know?" asked Roo indignantly.
"Oh, Roo, you never told me," said Kanga reproachfully.
"It was a Biscuit Cough," said Roo, "not one you tell about."
"I think not today, dear. Another day."
"Tomorrow?" said Roo hopefully.
"We'll see," said Kanga.
"You're always seeing, and nothing ever happens," said Roo sadly.
"Nobody could see on a day like this, Roo," said Rabbit. "I don't
expect we shall get very far, and then this afternoon we'll all--we'll
all--we'll--ah, Tigger, there you are. Come on. Good-bye, Roo! This
afternoon we'll--come on, Pooh! All ready? That's right. Come on."
So they went. At first Pooh and Rabbit and Piglet walked together, and
Tigger ran round them in circles, and then, when the path got narrower,
Rabbit, Piglet and Pooh walked one after another, and Tigger ran round
them in oblongs, and by-and-by, when the gorse got very prickly on
each side of the path, Tigger ran up and down in front of them, and
sometimes he bounced into Rabbit and sometimes he didn't. And as they
got higher, the mist got thicker, so that Tigger kept disappearing, and
then when you thought he wasn't there, there he was again, saying "I
say, come on," and before you could say anything, there he wasn't.
Rabbit turned round and nudged Piglet.
"The next time," he said. "Tell Pooh."
"The next time," said Piglet to Pooh.
"The next what?" said Pooh to Piglet.
Tigger appeared suddenly, bounced into Rabbit, and disappeared again.
"Now!" said Rabbit. He jumped into a hollow by the side of the path,
and Pooh and Piglet jumped after him. They crouched in the bracken,
listening. The Forest was very silent when you stopped and listened to
it. They could see nothing and hear nothing.
"H'sh!" said Rabbit.
"I am," said Pooh.
There was a pattering noise ... then silence again.
"Hallo!" said Tigger, and he sounded so close suddenly that Piglet
would have jumped if Pooh hadn't accidentally been sitting on most of
him.
"Where are you?" called Tigger.
Rabbit nudged Pooh, and Pooh looked about for Piglet to nudge, but
couldn't find him, and Piglet went on breathing wet bracken as quietly
as he could, and felt very brave and excited.
"That's funny," said Tigger.
There was a moment's silence, and then they heard him pattering off
again. For a little longer they waited, until the Forest had become
so still that it almost frightened them, and then Rabbit got up and
stretched himself.
"Well?" he whispered proudly. "There we are! Just as I said."
"I've been thinking," said Pooh, "and I think----"
"No," said Rabbit. "Don't. Run. Come on." And they all hurried off,
Rabbit leading the way.
"Now," said Rabbit, after they had gone a little way, "we can talk.
What were you going to say, Pooh?"
"Nothing much. Why are we going along here?"
"Because it's the way home."
"Oh!" said Pooh.
"I _think_ it's more to the right," said Piglet nervously. "What do
_you_ think, Pooh?"
Pooh looked at his two paws. He knew that one of them was the right,
and he knew that when you had decided which one of them was the right,
then the other one was the left, but he never could remember how to
begin.
"Well," he said slowly----
"Come on," said Rabbit. "I know it's this way."
They went on. Ten minutes later they stopped again.
"It's very silly," said Rabbit, "but just for the moment I----Ah, of
course. Come on...."
"Here we are," said Rabbit ten minutes later. "No, we're not...."
"Now," said Rabbit ten minutes later, "I think we ought to be
getting--or are we a little bit more to the right than I thought?..."
"It's a funny thing," said Rabbit ten minutes later, "how everything
looks the same in a mist. Have you noticed it, Pooh?"
Pooh said that he had.
"Lucky we know the Forest so well, or we might get lost," said Rabbit
half an hour later, and he gave the careless laugh which you give when
you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost.
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of
you."
When Tigger had finished waiting for the others to catch him up, and
they hadn't, and when he had got tired of having nobody to say, "I say,
come on" to, he thought he would go home. So he trotted back; and the
first thing Kanga said when she saw him was "There's a good Tigger.
You're just in time for your Strengthening Medicine," and she poured it
out for him. Roo said proudly, "I've _had_ mine," and Tigger swallowed
his and said, "So have I," and then he and Roo pushed each other about
in a friendly way, and Tigger accidentally knocked over one or two
chairs by accident, and Roo accidentally knocked over one on purpose,
and Kanga said, "Now then, run along."
"Where shall we run along to?" asked Roo.
"You can go and collect some fir-cones for me," said Kanga, giving them
a basket.
So they went to the Six Pine Trees, and threw fir-cones at each other
until they had forgotten what they came for, and they left the basket
under the trees and went back to dinner. And it was just as they were
finishing dinner that Christopher Robin put his head in at the door.
"Where's Pooh?" he asked.
"Tigger dear, where's Pooh?" said Kanga. Tigger explained what had
happened at the same time that Roo was explaining about his Biscuit
Cough and Kanga was telling them not both to talk at once, so it was
some time before Christopher Robin guessed that Pooh and Piglet and
Rabbit were all lost in the mist on the top of the Forest.
"It's a funny thing about Tiggers," whispered Tigger to Roo, "how
Tiggers _never_ get lost."
"Why don't they, Tigger?"
"They just don't," explained Tigger. "That's how it is."
"Well," said Christopher Robin, "we shall have to go and find them,
that's all. Come on, Tigger."
"I shall have to go and find them," explained Tigger to Roo.
"May I find them too?" asked Roo eagerly.
"I think not today, dear," said Kanga. "Another day."
"Well, if they're lost tomorrow, may I find them?"
"We'll see," said Kanga, and Roo, who knew what _that_ meant, went
into a corner, and practised jumping out at himself, partly because he