The House at Pooh Corner - A. A. Milne [24]
“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,