Winnie-The-Pooh - A. A. Milne [16]
‘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 for putting things in. There!’
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 you do with a balloon is, you hold the balloon—’
‘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 up again and put it carefully back.
‘So it does!’ said Pooh. ‘It goes in!’
‘So it does!’ said Piglet. ‘And it comes out!’
‘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 to put things in.’
‘I’m very glad,’ said Piglet happily, ‘that I thought of giving you Something to put in a Useful Pot.’
But Eeyore wasn’t listening. He was taking the balloon out, and putting it back again, as happy as could be. …
‘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 little—’
‘I gave him a box of paints to paint things with.’
‘That was it.’
‘Why didn’t I give it to him in the morning?’
‘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—’
‘Yes, I remember,’ said Christopher Robin.
CHAPTER SEVEN
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. So they all talked about it together.
‘What I don’t like about it is this,’ said Rabbit. ‘Here are we – you, Pooh, and you, Piglet, and Me – and suddenly—’
‘And Eeyore,’ said Pooh.
‘And Eeyore – and then suddenly—’
‘And Owl,’ said Pooh.
‘And Owl – and then all of a sudden—’
‘Oh, and Eeyore,’ said Pooh. ‘I was forgetting him.’
‘Here – we – are,’ said Rabbit very slowly and carefully, ‘all – of – 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.’
‘What?’ said Rabbit.
‘Fifteen.’
‘Fifteen what?’
‘Your family.’
‘What about them?’
Pooh rubbed his nose and said that he thought Rabbit had been talking about his family.
‘Did I?’ said Rabbit carelessly.
‘Yes, you said—’
‘Never mind Pooh,’ said Piglet impatiently. ‘The question is, What are we to do about Kanga?’
‘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 say “Aha!” even if we hadn’t stolen Baby Roo.’
‘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