The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it."
"Can you read, Pooh?" he asked, a little anxiously. "There's a notice about knocking and ringing outside my door, which Christopher Robin wrote. Could you read it?""Christopher Robin told me what it said, and then I could.""Well, I'll tell you what this says, and then you'll be able to."So Owl wrote . . . and this is what he wrote:HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.Pooh looked on admiringly."I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday,'" said Owl carelessly."It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it."Well, actually, of course, I'm saying 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.""Oh, I see," said Pooh.
"A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference."
"There's Pooh," he thought to himself. "Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right. There's Owl. Owl hasn't exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things. He would know the Right Thing to Do when Surrounded by Water. There's Rabbit. He hasn't Learnt in Books, but he can always Think of a Clever Plan. There's Kanga. She isn't Clever, Kanga isn't, but she would be so anxious about Roo that she would do a Good Thing to Do without thinking about it. And then there's Eeyore. And Eeyore is so miserable anyhow that he wouldn't mind about this. But I wonder what Christopher Robin would do?"
"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?""What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?""I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.Pooh nodded thoughtfully."It's the same thing," he said.
So they went into Kanga's house, and when Roo had said, "Hallo, Pooh" and "Hallo, Piglet" once, and "Hallo, Tigger" twice, because he had never said it before and it sounded funny, they told Kanga what they wanted, and Kanga said very kindly, "Well, look in my cupboard, Tigger dear, and see what you'd like." Because she knew at once that, however big Tigger seemed to be, he wanted as much kindness as Roo.
By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late.
"Pooh!" he whispered."Yes, Piglet?""Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."
"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully."Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever.""And he has Brain.""Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."There was a long silence."I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."
"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 conversation," 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 any of us. You just stay here in this one corner of the Forest waiting for the others to come to you. Why don't you go to them sometimes?"Eeyore was silent for a little while, thinking."There may be something in what you say, Rabbit," he said at last. "I must move about more. I must come and go.""That's right, Eeyore. Drop in on any of us at any time, when you feel like it.""Thank-you, Rabbit. And if anybody says in a Loud Voice 'Bother, it's Eeyore,' I can drop out again."Rabbit stood on one leg for a moment."Well," he said, "I must be going.""Good-bye," said Eeyore."What? Oh, good-bye. And if you do come across a house for Owl, you must let us know.""I will give my mind to it," said Eeyore.Rabbit went.
"There!" said Eeyore proudly, stopping them outside Piglet's house. "And the name on it, and everything!""Oh!" cried Christopher Robin, wondering whether to laugh or what."Just the house for Owl. Don't you think so, little Piglet?"And then Piglet did a Noble Thing, and he did it in a sort of dream, while he was thinking of all the wonderful words Pooh had hummed about him."Yes, it's just the house for Owl," he said grandly. "And I hope he'll be very happy in it." And then he gulped twice, because he had been very happy in it himself."What do you think, Christopher Robin?" asked Eeyore a little anxiously, feeling that something wasn't quite right.Christopher Robin had a question to ask first, and he was wondering how to ask it."Well," he said at last, "it's a very nice house, and if your own house is blown down, you must go somewhere else, mustn't you, Piglet? What would you do, if your house was blown down?"Before Piglet could think, Pooh answered for him."He'd come and live with me," said Pooh, "wouldn't you, Piglet?"Piglet squeezed his paw."Thank you, Pooh," he said, "I should love to."
"What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?""Well," said Pooh, "what I like best-" and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. And then he thought that being with Christopher Robin was a very good thing to do, and having Piglet near was a very friendly thing to have; and so, when he had thought it all out, he said, "What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying 'What about a little something?' and Me saying, 'Well, I shouldn't mind a little something, should you, Piglet,' and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and birds singing.""I like that too," said Christopher Robin, "but what I like doing best is Nothing.""How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time."Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it.""Oh, I see," said Pooh."This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing now.""Oh, I see," said Pooh again."It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
Suddenly Christopher Robin began to tell Pooh about some of the things: People called Kings and Queens and something called Factors, and a place called Europe, and an island in the middle of the sea where no ships came, and how you make a Suction Pump (if you want to), and when Knights were Knighted, and what comes from Brazil. And Pooh, his back against one of the sixty-something trees, and his paws folded in front of him, said "Oh!" and "I didn't know," and thought how wonderful it would be to have a Real Brain which could tell you things. And by-and-by Christopher Robin came to an end of the things, and was silent, and he sat there looking out over the world, and wishing it wouldn't stop.But Pooh was thinking too, and he said suddenly to Christopher Robin:"Is it a very Grand thing to be an Afternoon, what you said?""A what?" said Christopher Robin lazily, as he listened to something else."On a horse," explained Pooh."A Knight?""Oh, was that it?" said Pooh. "I thought it was a-Is it as Grand as a King and Factors and all the other things you said?""Well, it's not as grand as a King," said Christopher Robin, and then, as Pooh seemed disappointed, he added quickly, "but it's grander than Factors.""Could a Bear be one?""Oh course he could!" said Christopher Robin. "I'll make you one." And he took a stick and touched Pooh on the shoulder, and said, "Rise, Sir Pooh de Bear, most faithful of all my Knights."So Pooh rose and sat down and said "Thank you," which is the proper thing to say when you have been made a Knight, and he went into a dream again, in which he and Sir Pomp and Sir Brazil and Factors lived together with a horse, and were faithful Knights (all except Factors, who looked after the horse) to Good King Christopher Robin . . . and every now and then he shook his head, and said to himself "I'm not getting it right." Then he began to think of all the things Christopher Robin would want to tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to, and how muddling it would be for a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them right in his mind. "So, perhaps," he said sadly to himself, "Christopher Robin won't tell me any more," and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight meant that you just went on being faithful without being told things.Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world, with his chin in his hands, called out "Pooh!""Yes?" said Pooh."When I'm-when-Pooh!""Yes, Christopher Robin?""I'm not going to do Nothing any more.""Never again?""Well, not so much. They don't let you."Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again."Yes, Christopher Robin?" said Pooh helpfully."Pooh, when I'm-you know-when I'm not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?""Just Me?""Yes, Pooh.""Will you be here too?""Yes, Pooh, I will be, really. I promise I will be, Pooh.""That's good," said Pooh."Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."Pooh thought for a little."How old shall I be then?""Ninety-nine."Pooh nodded."I promise," he said.Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's paw."Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I-if I'm not quite-" he stopped and tried again-"Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?""Understand what?""Oh, nothing." He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!""Where?" said Pooh."Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.