Winnie-the-Pooh
CHAPTER VII
IN WHICH KANGA AND BABY ROO COME
TO THE FOREST, AND PIGLET HAS A BATH
Nobody seemed to know where they came from, but there they were in the
Forest: Kanga and Baby Roo. When Pooh asked Christopher Robin, "How did
they come here?" Christopher Robin said, "In the Usual Way, if you know
what I mean, Pooh," and Pooh, who didn't, said "Oh!" Then he nodded his
head twice and said, "In the Usual Way. Ah!" Then he went to call upon
his friend Piglet to see what _he_ thought about it. And at Piglet's
house he found Rabbit. So they all talked about it together.
"What I don't like about it is this," said Rabbit. "Here are we--you,
Pooh, and you, Piglet, and Me--and suddenly----"
"And Eeyore," said Pooh.
"And Eeyore--and then suddenly----"
"And Owl," said Pooh.
"And Owl--and then all of a sudden----"
"Oh, and Eeyore," said Pooh. "I was forgetting _him_."
"Here--we--are," said Rabbit very slowly and carefully, "all--of--us,
and then, suddenly, we wake up one morning and, what do we find? We find
a Strange Animal among us. An animal of whom we have never even heard
before! An animal who carries her family about with her in her pocket!
Suppose _I_ carried _my_ family about with me in _my_ pocket, how many
pockets should I want?"
"Sixteen," said Piglet.
"Seventeen, isn't it?" said Rabbit. "And one more for a
handkerchief--that's eighteen. Eighteen pockets in one suit! I haven't
time."
There was a long and thoughtful silence ... and then Pooh, who had
been frowning very hard for some minutes, said: "_I_ make it fifteen."
"What?" said Rabbit.
"Fifteen."
"Fifteen what?"
"Your family."
"What about them?"
Pooh rubbed his nose and said that he thought Rabbit had been talking
about his family.
"Did I?" said Rabbit carelessly.
"Yes, you said----"
"Never mind, Pooh," said Piglet impatiently.
"The question is, What are we to do about Kanga?"
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.
"The best way," said Rabbit, "would be this. The best way would be to
steal Baby Roo and hide him, and then when Kanga says, 'Where's Baby
Roo?' we say, '_Aha!_'"
"_Aha!_" said Pooh, practising. "_Aha! Aha!_ ... Of course," he went
on, "we could say 'Aha!' even if we hadn't stolen Baby Roo."
"Pooh," said Rabbit kindly, "you haven't any brain."
"I know," said Pooh humbly.
"We say '_Aha!_' so that Kanga knows that _we_ know where Baby Roo is.
'_Aha!_' means 'We'll tell you where Baby Roo is, if you promise to go
away from the Forest and never come back.' Now don't talk while I
think."
Pooh went into a corner and tried saying 'Aha!' in that sort of voice.
Sometimes it seemed to him that it did mean what Rabbit said, and
sometimes it seemed to him that it didn't. "I suppose it's just
practice," he thought. "I wonder if Kanga will have to practise too so
as to understand it."
"There's just one thing," said Piglet, fidgeting a bit. "I was talking
to Christopher Robin, and he said that a Kanga was Generally Regarded as
One of the Fiercer Animals. I am not frightened of Fierce Animals in the
ordinary way, but it is well known that, if One of the Fiercer Animals
is Deprived of Its Young, it becomes as fierce as Two of the Fiercer
Animals. In which case '_Aha!_' is perhaps a _foolish_ thing to say."
"Piglet," said Rabbit, taking out a pencil, and licking the end of it,
"you haven't any pluck."
"It is hard to be brave," said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're
only a Very Small Animal."
Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said:
"It is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in
the adventure before us."
Piglet was so excited at the idea of being Useful, that he forgot to be
frightened any more, and when Rabbit went on to say that Kangas were
only Fierce during the winter months, being at other times of an
Affectionate Disposition, he could hardly sit still, he was so eager to
begin being useful at once.
"What about me?" said Pooh sadly. "I suppose _I_ shan't be useful?"
"Never mind, Pooh," said Piglet comfortingly. "Another time perhaps."
"Without Pooh," said Rabbit solemnly as he sharpened his pencil, "the
adventure would be impossible."
"Oh!" said Piglet, and tried not to look disappointed. But Pooh went
into a corner of the room and said proudly to himself, "Impossible
without Me! _That_ sort of Bear."
"Now listen all of you," said Rabbit when he had finished writing, and
Pooh and Piglet sat listening very eagerly with their mouths open. This
was what Rabbit read out:
PLAN TO CAPTURE BABY ROO
1. _General Remarks._ Kanga runs faster than any of Us, even Me.
2. _More General Remarks._ Kanga never takes her eye off Baby Roo,
except when he's safely buttoned up in her pocket.
3. _Therefore._ If we are to capture Baby Roo, we must get a Long
Start, because Kanga runs faster than any of Us, even Me.
(_See_ 1.)
4. _A Thought._ If Roo had jumped out of Kanga's pocket and Piglet
had jumped in, Kanga wouldn't know the difference, because Piglet
is a Very Small Animal.
5. Like Roo.
6. But Kanga would have to be looking the other way first, so as not
to see Piglet jumping in.
7. See 2.
8. _Another Thought._ But if Pooh was talking to her very excitedly,
she _might_ look the other way for a moment.
9. And then I could run away with Roo.
10. Quickly.
11. _And Kanga wouldn't discover the difference until Afterwards._
Well, Rabbit read this out proudly, and for a little while after he had
read it nobody said anything. And then Piglet, who had been opening and
shutting his mouth without making any noise, managed to say very
huskily:
"And--Afterwards?"
"How do you mean?"
"When Kanga _does_ Discover the Difference?"
"Then we all say '_Aha!_'"
"All three of us?"
"Yes."
"Oh!"
"Why, what's the trouble, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, "as long as _we all three_ say it. As long as we
all three say it," said Piglet, "I don't mind," he said, "but I
shouldn't care to say '_Aha!_' by myself. It wouldn't sound _nearly_ so
well. By the way," he said, "you _are_ quite sure about what you said
about the winter months?"
"The winter months?"
"Yes, only being Fierce in the Winter Months."
"Oh, yes, yes, that's all right. Well, Pooh? You see what you have to
do?"
"No," said Pooh Bear. "Not yet," he said. "What _do_ I do?"
"Well, you just have to talk very hard to Kanga so as she doesn't notice
anything."
"Oh! What about?"
"Anything you like."
"You mean like telling her a little bit of poetry or something?"
"That's it," said Rabbit. "Splendid. Now come along."
So they all went out to look for Kanga.
Kanga and Roo were spending a quiet afternoon in a sandy part of the
Forest. Baby Roo was practising very small jumps in the sand, and
falling down mouse-holes and climbing out of them, and Kanga was
fidgeting about and saying "Just one more jump, dear, and then we must
go home." And at that moment who should come stumping up the hill but
Pooh.
"Good afternoon, Kanga."
"Good afternoon, Pooh."
"Look at me jumping," squeaked Roo, and fell into another mouse-hole.
"Hallo, Roo, my little fellow!"
"We were just going home," said Kanga. "Good afternoon, Rabbit. Good
afternoon, Piglet."
Rabbit and Piglet, who had now come up from the other side of the hill,
said "Good afternoon," and "Hallo, Roo," and Roo asked them to look at
him jumping, so they stayed and looked.
And Kanga looked too....
"Oh, Kanga," said Pooh, after Rabbit had winked at him twice, "I don't
know if you are interested in Poetry at all?"
"Hardly at all," said Kanga.
"Oh!" said Pooh.
"Roo, dear, just one more jump and then we must go home."
There was a short silence while Roo fell down another mouse-hole.
"Go on," said Rabbit in a loud whisper behind his paw.
"Talking of Poetry," said Pooh, "I made up a little piece as I was
coming along. It went like this. Er--now let me see----"
"Fancy!" said Kanga. "Now Roo, dear----"
"You'll like this piece of poetry," said Rabbit.
"You'll love it," said Piglet.
"You must listen very carefully," said Rabbit.
"So as not to miss any of it," said Piglet.
"Oh, yes," said Kanga, but she still looked at Baby Roo.
"_How_ did it go, Pooh?" said Rabbit.
Pooh gave a little cough and began.
LINES WRITTEN BY A BEAR OF VERY LITTLE BRAIN
On Monday, when the sun is hot
I wonder to myself a lot:
"Now is it true, or is it not,
"That what is which and which is what?"
On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,
The feeling on me grows and grows
That hardly anybody knows
If those are these or these are those.
On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
And I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who.
On Thursday, when it starts to freeze
And hoar-frost twinkles on the trees,
How very readily one sees
That these are whose--but whose are these?
On Friday----
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" said Kanga, not waiting to hear what happened on
Friday. "Just one more jump, Roo, dear, and then we really _must_ be
going."
Rabbit gave Pooh a hurrying-up sort of nudge.
"Talking of Poetry," said Pooh quickly, "have you ever noticed that tree
right over there?"
"Where?" said Kanga. "Now, Roo----"
"Right over there," said Pooh, pointing behind Kanga's back.
"No," said Kanga. "Now jump in, Roo, dear, and we'll go home."
"You ought to look at that tree right over there," said Rabbit. "Shall I
lift you in, Roo?" And he picked up Roo in his paws.
"I can see a bird in it from here," said Pooh. "Or is it a fish?"
"You ought to see that bird from here," said Rabbit. "Unless it's a
fish."
"It isn't a fish, it's a bird," said Piglet.
"So it is," said Rabbit.
"Is it a starling or a blackbird?" said Pooh.
"That's the whole question," said Rabbit. "Is it a blackbird or a
starling?"
And then at last Kanga did turn her head to look. And the moment that
her head was turned, Rabbit said in a loud voice "In you go, Roo!" and
in jumped Piglet into Kanga's pocket, and off scampered Rabbit, with Roo
in his paws, as fast as he could.
"Why, where's Rabbit?" said Kanga, turning round again. "Are you all
right, Roo, dear?"
Piglet made a squeaky Roo-noise from the bottom of Kanga's pocket.
"Rabbit had to go away," said Pooh. "I think he thought of something he
had to go and see about suddenly."
"And Piglet?"
"I think Piglet thought of something at the same time. Suddenly."
"Well, we must be getting home," said Kanga. "Good-bye, Pooh." And in
three large jumps she was gone.
Pooh looked after her as she went.
"I wish I could jump like that," he thought. "Some can and some can't.
That's how it is."
But there were moments when Piglet wished that Kanga couldn't. Often,
when he had had a long walk home through the Forest, he had wished that
he were a bird; but now he thought jerkily to himself at the bottom of
Kanga's pocket,
this take
"If is shall really to
flying I never it."
And as he went up in the air he said, "_Ooooooo!_" and as he came down
he said, "_Ow!_" And he was saying, "_Ooooooo-ow, Ooooooo-ow,
Ooooooo-ow_" all the way to Kanga's house.
Of course as soon as Kanga unbuttoned her pocket, she saw what had
happened. Just for a moment, she thought she was frightened, and then
she knew she wasn't; for she felt quite sure that Christopher Robin
would never let any harm happen to Roo. So she said to herself, "If they