"We're starting," said Rabbit. "I must go." And he hurried off to the front of
"All right," said Eeyore. "We're going. Only Don't Blame Me."
So off they all went to discover the Pole. And as they walked, they chattered to each other of this and that, all except Pooh, who was making up a song.
"This is the first verse," he said to Piglet, when he was ready with it.
"Well, if you listen, Piglet, you'll hear it."
"How do you know I'm not listening?" Pooh couldn't answer that one, so he began
"Hush!" said Christopher Robin turning round to Pooh, "we're just coming to a
"Hush!" several times to himself, very quietly.
"Hush!" said Eeyore in a terrible voice to all Rabbit's friends-and-relations, and "Hush!" they said hastily to each other all down the line, until it got to the last one of all. And the last and smallest friend-and-relation was so upset to find that the whole Expotition was saying "Hush!" to him, that he buried himself head downwards in a crack in the ground, and stayed there for two days until the danger was over, and then went home in a great hurry, and lived quietly with his Aunt ever-afterwards. His name was Alexander Beetle.
They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high rocky banks,
"Owl," said Piglet, looking round at him severely, "Pooh's whisper was a
"An Ambush," said Owl, "is a sort of Surprise."
"So is a gorse-bush sometimes," said Pooh.
"An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Pooh," said Piglet, "is a sort of
"If people jump out at you suddenly, that's an Ambush," said Owl.
"It's an Ambush, Pooh, when people jump at you suddenly," explained Piglet.
Pooh, who now knew what an Ambush was, said that a gorse-bush had sprung at him suddenly one day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken six days to get all
"We are not talking about gorse-bushes," said Owl a little crossly.
"I am," said Pooh.
They were climbing very cautiously up the stream now, going from rock to rock, and after they had gone a little way they came to a place where the banks widened out at each side, so that on each side of the water there was a level strip of grass on which they could sit down and rest. As soon as he saw this,
Christopher Robin called "Halt!" and they all sat down and rested.
"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our Provisions now,
"All that we've brought," said Piglet, getting to work.
"That's a good idea," said Pooh, and he got to work too.
"Have you all got something?" asked Christopher Robin with his mouth full.
"All except me," said Eeyore. "As Usual." He looked round at them in his
I suppose none of you are sitting on a thistle by any chance?"
"I believe I am," said Pooh. "Ow!" He got up, and looked behind him. "Yes, I was. I thought so."
"Thank you, Pooh. If you've quite finished with it." He moved across to Pooh's
"It doesn't do them any Good, you know, sitting on them," he went on, as he looked up munching. "Takes all the Life out of them. Remember that another time, all of you. A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the
As soon as he had finished his lunch Christopher Robin whispered to Rabbit, and
Rabbit said "Yes, yes, of course," and they walked a little way up the stream
"Well," said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers. "Now you're asking me."
"I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten," said Christopher Robin
"It's a funny thing," said Rabbit, "but I've sort of forgotten too, although I
"Sure to be a pole," said Rabbit, "because of calling it a pole, and if it's a pole, well, I should think it would be sticking in the ground, shouldn't you,
"Yes, that's what I thought."
"That's what we're looking for," said Christopher Robin.
They went back to the others. Piglet was lying on his back, sleeping peacefully.
Roo was washing his face and paws in the stream, while Kanga explained to everybody proudly that this was the first time he had ever washed his face himself, and Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopedia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn't listening.
"I don't hold with all this washing," grumbled Eeyore. "This modern
Behind-the-ears nonsense. What do you think, Pooh?"
"So much for washing," said Eeyore.
"Roo's fallen in!" cried Rabbit, and he and Christopher Robin came rushing down
"Look at me swimming!" squeaked Roo from the middle of his pool, and was hurried
"Are you all right, Roo dear?" called Kanga anxiously.
"Yes!" said Roo. "Look at me sw-" and down he went over the next waterfall into
Everybody was doing something to help. Piglet, wide awake suddenly, was jumping up and down and making "Oo, I say" noises; Owl was explaining that in a case of
Sudden and Temporary Immersion the Important Thing was to keep the Head Above
Water; Kanga was jumping along the bank, saying "Are you sure you're all right,
Roo dear?" to which Roo, from whatever pool he was in at the moment, was answering "Look at me swimming!" Eeyore had turned round and hung his tail over the first pool into which Roo fell, and with his back to the accident was grumbling quietly to himself, and saying, "All this washing; but catch on to my tail, little Roo, and you'll be all right"; and,Christopher Robin and Rabbit came hurrying past Eeyore, and were calling out to the others in front of them.
"All right, Roo, I'm coming," called Christopher Robin.
"Get something across the stream lower down, some of you fellows," called
But Christopher Robin wasn't listening. He was looking at Pooh.