Winnie-The-Pooh - A. A. Milne [19]
‘If this is flying I shall never really take to it’
And as he went up in the air he said, ‘Ooooooo!’ and as he came down he said ‘Ow!’ And he was saying, ‘Ooooooo-ow, Ooooooo-ow, Ooooooo-ow’ all the way to Kanga’s house.
Of course as soon as Kanga unbuttoned her pocket, she saw what had happened. Just for a moment, she thought she was frightened, and then she knew she wasn’t; for she felt sure that Christopher Robin would never let any harm happen to Roo. So she said to herself, ‘If they are having a joke with me, I will have a joke with them.’
‘Now then, Roo, dear,’ she said, as she took Piglet out of her pocket, ‘Bed-time.’
‘Aha!’ said Piglet, as well as he could after his Terrifying Journey. But it wasn’t a very good ‘Aha!’ and Kanga didn’t seem to understand what it meant.
‘Bath first,’ said Kanga in a cheerful voice.
‘Aha!’ said Piglet again, looking round anxiously for the others. But the others weren’t there. Rabbit was playing with Baby Roo in his own house, and feeling more fond of him every minute, and Pooh, who had decided to be a Kanga, was still at the sandy place on the top of the Forest, practising jumps.
‘I am not at all sure,’ said Kanga in a thoughtful voice, ‘that it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a cold bath this evening. Would you like that, Roo, dear?’
Piglet, who had never been really fond of baths, shuddered a long indignant shudder, and said in as brave a voice as he could:
‘Kanga, I see that the time has come to spleak painly.’
‘Funny little Roo,’ said Kanga, as she got the bath-water ready.
‘I am not Roo,’ said Piglet loudly. ‘I am Piglet!’
‘Yes, dear, yes,’ said Kanga soothingly. ‘And imitating Piglet’s voice too! So clever of him,’ she went on, as she took a large bar of yellow soap out of the cupboard. ‘What will he be doing next?’
‘Can’t you see?’ shouted Piglet. ‘Haven’t you got eyes? Look at me!’
‘I am looking, Roo, dear,’ said Kanga rather severely. ‘And you know what I told you yesterday about making faces. If you go on making faces like Piglet’s, you will grow up to look like Piglet – and then think how sorry you will be. Now then, into the bath, and don’t let me have to speak to you about it again.’
Before he knew where he was, Piglet was in the bath, and Kanga was scrubbing him firmly with a large lathery flannel.
‘Ow!’ cried Piglet. ‘Let me out! I’m Piglet!’
‘Don’t open the mouth, dear, or the soap goes in,’ said Kanga. ‘There! What did I tell you?’
‘You – you – you did it on purpose,’ spluttered Piglet, as soon as he could speak again … and then accidentally had another mouthful of lathery flannel.
‘That’s right, dear, don’t say anything,’ said Kanga, and in another minute Piglet was out of the bath, and being rubbed dry with a towel.
‘Now,’ said Kanga, ‘there’s your medicine, and then bed.’
‘W-w-what medicine?’ said Piglet.
‘To make you grow big and strong, dear. You don’t want to grow up small and weak like Piglet, do you? Well, then!’
At that moment there was a knock at the door.
‘Come in,’ said Kanga, and in came Christopher Robin.
‘Christopher Robin, Christopher Robin!’ cried Piglet. ‘Tell Kanga who I am! She keeps saying I’m Roo. I’m not Roo, am I?’
Christopher Robin looked at him very carefully, and shook his head.
‘You can’t be Roo,’ he said, ‘because I’ve just seen Roo playing in Rabbit’s house.’
‘Well!’ said Kanga. ‘Fancy that! Fancy my making a mistake like that.’
‘There you are!’ said Piglet. ‘I told you so. I’m Piglet.’
Christopher Robin shook his head again.
‘Oh, you’re not Piglet,’ he said. ‘I know Piglet well, and he’s quite a different colour.’
Piglet began to say that this was because he had just had a bath, and then he thought that perhaps he wouldn’t say that, and as he opened his mouth to say something else, Kanga slipped the medicine spoon in, and then patted him on the back and told him that it was really quite a nice taste when you got used to it.
‘I knew it wasn’t Piglet,’ said Kanga. ‘I wonder who it can be.’
‘Perhaps it’s some relation of Pooh