Winnie-The-Pooh - A. A. Milne [27]
‘Now then, Pooh,’ said Christopher Robin, ‘where’s your boat?’
‘I ought to say,’ explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the island, ‘that it isn’t just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it’s a Boat, and sometimes it’s more of an Accident. It all depends.’
‘Depends on what?’
‘On whether I’m on the top of it or underneath it.’
‘Oh! Well, where is it?’
‘There!’ said Pooh, pointing proudly to The Floating Bear.
It wasn’t what Christopher Robin expected, and the more he looked at it, the more he thought what a Brave and Clever Bear Pooh was, and the more Christopher Robin thought this, the more Pooh looked modestly down his nose and tried to pretend he wasn’t.
‘But it’s too small for two of us,’ said Christopher Robin sadly.
‘Three of us with Piglet.’
‘That makes it smaller still. Oh, Pooh Bear, what shall we do?’
And then this Bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F. O. P. (Friend of Piglet’s), R. C. (Rabbit’s Companion), P. D. (Pole Discoverer), E. C. and T. F. (Eeyore’s Comforter and Tail-finder) – in fact, Pooh himself – said something so clever that Christopher Robin could only look at him with mouth open and eyes staring, wondering if this was really the Bear of Very Little Brain whom he had known and loved so long.
‘We might go in your umbrella,’ said Pooh.
‘?’
‘We might go in your umbrella,’ said Pooh.
‘? ?’
‘We might go in your umbrella,’ said Pooh.
‘! ! ! ! ! !’
For suddenly Christopher Robin saw that they might. He opened his umbrella and put it point downwards in the water. It floated but wobbled. Pooh got in.
He was just beginning to say that it was all right now, when he found that it wasn’t, so after a short drink, which he didn’t really want, he waded back to Christopher Robin. Then they both got in together, and it wobbled no longer.
‘I shall call this boat The Brain of Pooh,’ said Christopher Robin, and The Brain of Pooh set sail forthwith in a south-westerly direction, revolving gracefully.
You can imagine Piglet’s joy when at last the ship came in sight of him. In after-years he liked to think that he had been in Very Great Danger during the Terrible Flood, but the only danger he had really been in was the last half-hour of his imprisonment, when Owl, who had just flown up, sat on a branch of his tree to comfort him, and told him a very long story about an aunt who had once laid a seagull’s egg by mistake, and the story went on and on, rather like this sentence, until Piglet who was listening out of his window without much hope, went to sleep quietly and naturally, slipping slowly out of the window towards the water until he was only hanging on by his toes, at which moment, luckily, a sudden loud squawk from Owl, which was really part of the story, being what his aunt said, woke the Piglet up and just gave him time to jerk himself back into safety and say, ‘How interesting, and did she?’ when – well, you can imagine his joy when at last he saw the good ship, Brain of Pooh (Captain, C. Robin; 1st Mate, P. Bear) coming over the sea to rescue him. …
And as that is really the end of the story, and I am very tired after that last sentence, I think I shall stop there.
CHAPTER TEN
in which Christopher Robin gives a Pooh Party, and we say good-bye
One day when the sun had come back over the Forest, bringing with it the scent of may, and all the streams of the Forest were tinkling happily to find themselves their own pretty shape again, and the little pools lay dreaming of the life they had seen and the big things they had done, and in the warmth and quiet of the Forest the cuckoo was trying over his voice carefully and listening to see if he liked it, and wood-pigeons were complaining gently to themselves in their lazy comfortable way that it was the other fellow’s fault, but it didn’t matter very much; on such a day as this Christopher Robin whistled in a special way he had, and Owl came flying out of the Hundred Acre Wood to see what was wanted.
‘Owl,’ said Christopher Robin, ‘I am going to give a party.’
‘You are, are you?’ said Owl.
‘And it