The House at Pooh Corner - A. A. Milne [30]
POOH HAD WANDERED into the Hundred Acre Wood, and was standing in front of what had once been Owl’s House. It didn’t look at all like a house now; it looked like a tree which had been blown down; and as soon as a house looks like that, it is time you tried to find another one. Pooh had had a Mysterious Missage underneath his front door that morning, saying, “I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT,” and while he was wondering what it meant, Rabbit had come in and read it for him.
“I’m leaving one for all the others,” said Rabbit, “and telling them what it means, and they’ll all search too. I’m in a hurry, good-bye.” And he had run off.
Pooh followed slowly. He had something better to do than to find a new house for Owl; he had to make up a Pooh song about the old one. Because he had promised Piglet days and days ago that he would, and whenever he and Piglet had met since, Piglet didn’t actually say anything, but you knew at once why he didn’t; and if anybody mentioned Hums or Trees or String or Storms-in-the-Night, Piglet’s nose went all pink at the tip and he talked about something quite different in a hurried sort of way.
“But it isn’t Easy,” said Pooh to himself, as he looked at what had once been Owl’s House. “Because Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.”
He waited hopefully….
“Well,” said Pooh after a long wait, “I shall begin ‘Here lies a tree’ because it does, and then I’ll see what happens.”
This is what happened.
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)
Was fond of when it stood on end,
And Owl was talking to a friend
Called Me (in case you hadn’t heard)
When something Oo occurred.
For lo! the wind was blusterous
And flattened out his favourite tree;
And things looks bad for him and we—
Looked bad, I mean, for he and us—
I’ve never known them wuss.
Then Piglet (PIGLET) thought a thing:
“Courage!” he said. “There’s always hope.
I want a thinnish piece of rope.
Or, if there isn)t any bring
A thickish piece of string.”
So to the letter-box he rose,
While Pooh and Owl said “Oh!” and “Hum!”
And where the letters always come
(Called “LETTERS ONLY”) Piglet sqooze
His head and then his toes.
O gallant Piglet (PIGLET)! Ho!
Did Piglet tremble? Did he blinch?
No, No, he struggled inch by inch
Through LETTERS ONLY, as I know
Because I saw him go.
He ran and ran, and then he stood
And shouted, “Help for Owl, a bird
And Pooh, a bear!” until he heard
The others coming through the wood
As quickly as they could.
“Help-help and Rescue!” Piglet cried
And showed the others where to go.
Sing ho! for Piglet (PIGLET) ho!
And soon the door was opened wide
And we were both outside!
Sing ho! for Piglet, ho!
Ho!
“So there it is,” said Pooh, when he had sung this to himself three times. “It’s come different from what I thought it would, but it’s come. Now I must go and sing it to Piglet.”
I AM SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT.
“What’s all this?” said Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
“What’s the matter with his old house?” asked Eeyore.
Rabbit explained.
“Nobody tells me,” said Eeyore. “Nobody keeps me Informed. I make it seventeen days come Friday since anybody spoke to me.”
“It certainly isn’t seventeen days—”
“Come Friday,” explained Eeyore.
“And today’s Saturday,” said Rabbit. “So that would make it eleven days. And I was here myself a week ago.”
“Not conversing,” said Eeyore. “Not first one and then the other. You said ‘Hallo’ and Flashed Past. I saw your tail in the distance as I was meditating my reply. I had thought of saying ‘What?’—but, of course, it was then too late.”
“Well, I was in a hurry.”
“No Give and Take,” Eeyore went on. “No Exchange of Thought: ’Hallo—What”—I mean, it gets you nowhere, particularly if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.”
“It’s your fault, Eeyore. You’ve never been to see