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So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that

Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,

When he thought, “I’m as hot as a body can be,

And I’ve nothing to take for my terrible thirst;

So I’ll look for a spring, and I’ll look for it first.”

Then he thought as he started, “Oh, dear and oh, dear!

I’ll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!”

So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:

“I must first find some chickens”

and “No, I mean goats.”

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)

When he thought, “But I must have a boat for escape.

But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;

So I’d better sit down and make needles instead.”

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,

That, if this was an island where savages lurked,

Sitting safe in his hut he’d have nothing to fear,

Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut…and he thought of his boat,

And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,

And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst)…

But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,

But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.

And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved—

He did nothing but basking until he was saved!

The Engineer

Let it rain!

Who cares?

I’ve a train

Upstairs,

With a brake

Which I make

From a string

Sort of thing,

Which works

In jerks,

’Cos it drops

In the spring,

Which stops

With the string,

And the wheels

All stick

So quick

That it feels

Like a thing

That you make

With a brake,

Not string….

So that’s what I make,

When the day’s all wet.

It’s a good sort of brake

But it hasn’t worked yet.

Journey’s End

Christopher, Christopher, where are you going,

Christopher Robin?

“Just up to the top of the hill,

Upping and upping until

I am right on the top of the hill,”

Said Christopher Robin.

Christopher, Christopher, where are you going,

Christopher Robin?

There’s nothing to see, so when

You’ve got to the top, what then?

“Just down to the bottom again,”

Said Christopher Robin.

Furry Bear

If I were a bear,

And a big bear too,

I shouldn’t much care

If it froze or snew;

I shouldn’t much mind

If it snowed or friz—

I’d be all fur-lined

With a coat like his!

For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,

And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.

I’d have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws,

And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.

With a big brown furry-down up to my head,

I’d sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

Forgiven

I found a little beetle, so that Beetle was his name,

And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.

I put him in a match-box, and I kept him

all the day…

And Nanny let my beetle out—

Yes, Nanny let my beetle out—

She went and let my beetle out—

And Beetle ran away.

She said she didn’t mean it, and I never said she did,

She said she wanted matches and she just took off the lid,

She said that she was sorry, but it’s difficult to catch

An excited sort of beetle you’ve mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn’t mind,

As there’s lots and lots of beetles which she’s certain we could find

If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid—

And we’d get another match-box and write

BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,

And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,

And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:

“A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!”

It was Alexander Beetle I’m as certain as can be

And he had a sort of look as if he thought it must be ME,

And he had a sort of look as if he thought he ought to say:

“I’m very, very sorry that I tried to run away.”

And Nanny’s very sorry too for you-know-what-she-did,

And she’s writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid.

So Nan and Me are friends, because