"Balloon?" said Eeyore. "You did say balloon? One of those big coloured things you blow up? Gaiety, song-and-dance, here we are and there we are?"
"Yes, but I'm afraid-I'm very sorry, Eeyore- but when I was running along to bring it you, I fell down."
"Dear, dear, how unlucky! You ran too fast, I expect. You didn't hurt yourself,
"Yes, Eeyore," said Piglet sniffing a little. "Here it is. With-with many happy returns of the day." And he gave Eeyore the small piece of damp rag.
"Is this it?" said Eeyore, a little surprised.
"Thank you, Piglet," said Eeyore. "You don't mind my asking," he went on, "but what colour was this balloon when it-when it was a balloon?"
"I just wondered... Red," he murmured to himself. "My favourite colour...
"I just wondered... About as big as Piglet," he said to himself sadly. "My favourite size. Well, well."
Piglet felt very miserable, and didn't know what to say. He was still opening his mouth to begin something, and then deciding that it wasn't any good saying that, when he heard a shout from the other side of the river, and there was
"Thank you, Pooh, I'm having them," said Eeyore gloomily.
"I've brought you a little present," said Pooh excitedly.
"I've had it," said Eeyore.
Pooh had now splashed across the stream to Eeyore, and Piglet was sitting a little way off, his head in his paws, snuffling to himself.
"It's a Useful Pot," said Pooh. "Here it is. And it's got 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh' written on it. That's what all that writing is. And it's
When Eeyore saw the pot, he became quite excited.
"Why!" he said. "I believe my Balloon will just go into that Pot!"
"Oh, no, Eeyore," said Pooh. "Balloons are much too big to go into Pots. What
"Not mine," said Eeyore proudly. "Look, Piglet!" And as Piglet looked sorrowfully round, Eeyore picked the balloon up with his teeth, and placed it carefully in the pot; picked it out and put it on the ground; and then picked it
"Doesn't it?" said Eeyore. "It goes in and out like anything."
"I'm very glad," said Pooh happily, "that I thought of giving you a Useful Pot
"I'm very glad," said Piglet happily, "that thought of giving you something to
But Eeyore wasn't listening. He was taking the balloon out, and putting it back
"And didn't I give him anything?" asked Christopher Robin sadly.
"Of course you did," I said. "You gave him don't you remember-a little-a
"You were so busy getting his party ready for him. He had a cake with icing on the top, and three candles, and his name in pink sugar? and "
Winnie-The-Pooh - Chapter 7
...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.
"Oh, and Eeyore," said Pooh. "I was forgetting him."
"Here-we-are," said Rabbit very slowly and carefully, all-or-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 had 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."
Pooh rubbed his nose and said that he thought Rabbit had been talking about his
"Never mind, Pooh," said Piglet impatiently. "The question is, What are we to do
"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
"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
"Piglet," said Rabbit, taking out a pencil, and licking the end of it, "you
"It is hard to be brave," said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a
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
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
"Now listen all of you," said Rabbit when he had finished writing, and Pooh and
open. This was what Rabbit read out:
I. 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
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 I.)
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