A.A. Milne - Winnie-the-Pooh

In a little while they were all ready at the top of the Forest, and the Expotition started. First came Christopher Robin and Rabbit, then Piglet and Pooh; then Kanga, with Roo in her pocket, and Owl; then Eeyore; and, at the end, in a long line, all Rabbit’s friends-and-relations.

‘I didn’t ask them,’ explained Rabbit carelessly. ‘They just came. They always do. They can march at the end, after Eeyore.’

‘What I say,’ said Eeyore, ‘is that it’s unsettling. I didn’t want to come on this Expo – what Pooh said. I only came to oblige. But here I am; and if I am the end of the Expo – what we’re talking about – then let me be the end. But if, every time I want to sit down for a little rest, I have to brush away half a dozen of Rabbit’s smaller friends-and-relations first, then this isn’t an Expo – whatever it is – at all, it’s simply a Confused Noise. That’s what I say.’

‘I see what Eeyore means,’ said Owl. ‘If you ask me—

‘I’m not asking anybody,’ said Eeyore. ‘I’m just telling everybody. We can look for the North Pole, or we can play “Here we go gathering Nuts and May” with the end part of an ants’ nest. It’s all the same to me.’

There was a shout from the top of the line.

‘Come on!’ called Christopher Robin.

‘Come on!’ called Pooh and Piglet.

‘Come on!’ called Owl.

‘We’re starting,’ said Rabbit. ‘I must go.’ And he hurried off to the front of the Expotition with Christopher Robin.

‘All right,’ said Eeyore. ‘We’re going. Only Don’t Blame Me.’

So off they all went to discover the Pole. And as they walked, they chattered to each other of this and that, all except Pooh, who was making up a song.

‘This is the first verse,’ he said to Piglet, when he was ready with it.

‘First verse of what?’

‘My song.’

‘What song?’

‘This one.’

‘Which one?’

‘Well, if you listen, Piglet, you’ll hear it.’

‘How do you know I’m not listening?’

Pooh couldn’t answer that one, so he began to sing.

They all went off to discover the Pole,

Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all;

It’s a Thing you Discover, as I’ve been tole

By Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all.

Eeyore, Christopher Robin and Pooh

And Rabbit’s relations all went too—

And where the Pole was none of them knew. …

Sing Hey! for Owl and Rabbit and all!

‘Hush!’ said Christopher Robin, turning round to Pooh, ‘we’re just coming to a Dangerous Place.’

‘Hush!’ said Pooh, turning round quickly to Piglet.

‘Hush!’ said Piglet to Kanga.

‘Hush!’ said Kanga to Owl, while Roo said ‘Hush!’ several times to himself very quietly.

‘Hush!’ said Owl to Eeyore.

‘ Hush! ’ said Eeyore in a terrible voice to all Rabbit’s friends-and-relations, and ‘Hush!’ they said hastily to each other all down the line, until it got to the last one of all. And the last and smallest friend-and-relation was so upset to find that the whole Expotition was saying ‘Hush!’ to him , that he buried himself head downwards in a crack in the ground, and stayed there for two days until the danger was over, and then went home in a great hurry, and lived quietly with his Aunt ever-afterwards. His name was Alexander Beetle.

They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high rocky banks, and Christopher Robin saw at once how dangerous it was.

‘It’s just the place,’ he explained, ‘for an Ambush.’

‘What sort of bush?’ whispered Pooh to Piglet. ‘A gorse-bush?’

‘My dear Pooh,’ said Owl in his superior way, ‘don’t you know what an Ambush is?’

‘Owl,’ said Piglet, looking round at him severely, ‘Pooh’s whisper was a perfectly private whisper, and there was no need—’

‘An Ambush,’ said Owl, ‘is a sort of Surprise.’

‘So is a gorse-bush sometimes,’ said Pooh.

‘An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Pooh,’ said Piglet, ‘is a sort of Surprise.’

‘If people jump out at you suddenly, that’s an Ambush,’ said Owl.

‘It’s an Ambush, Pooh, when people jump at you suddenly,’ explained Piglet.

Pooh, who now knew what an Ambush was, said that a gorse-bush had sprung at him suddenly one day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken six days to get all the prickles out of himself.

‘We are not talking about gorse-bushes,’ said Owl a little crossly.

‘I am,’ said Pooh.

They were climbing very cautiously up the stream now, going from rock to rock, and after they had gone a little way they came to a place where the banks widened out at each side, so that on each side of the water there was a level strip of grass on which they could sit down and rest. As soon as he saw this, Christopher Robin called ‘Halt!’ and they all sat down and rested.

‘I think,’ said Christopher Robin, ‘that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so that we shan’t have so much to carry.’

‘Eat all our what?’ said Pooh.

‘All that we’ve brought,’ said Piglet, getting to work.

‘That’s a good idea,’ said Pooh, and he got to work too.

‘Have you all got something?’ asked Christopher Robin with his mouth full.

‘All except me,’ said Eeyore. ‘As Usual.’ He looked round at them in his melancholy way. ‘I suppose none of you are sitting on a thistle by any chance?’

‘I believe I am,’ said Pooh. ‘Ow!’ He got up, and looked behind him. ‘Yes, I was. I thought so.’

‘Thank you, Pooh. If you’ve quite finished with it.’ He moved across to Pooh’s place, and began to eat.

‘It doesn’t do them any Good, you know, sitting on them,’ he went on, as he looked up munching. ‘Takes all the Life out of them. Remember that another time, all of you. A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.’

As soon as he had finished his lunch Christopher Robin whispered to Rabbit, and Rabbit said ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ and they walked a little way up the stream together.

‘I didn’t want the others to hear,’ said Christopher Robin.

‘Quite so,’ said Rabbit, looking important.

‘It’s – I wondered – It’s only – Rabbit, I suppose you don’t know. What does the North Pole look like?’

‘Well,’ said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers, ‘now you’re asking me.’

‘I did know once, only I’ve sort of forgotten,’ said Christopher Robin carelessly.

‘It’s funny thing,’ said Rabbit, ‘but I’ve sort of forgotten too, although I did know once .’

‘I suppose it’s just a pole stuck in the ground?’

‘Sure to be a pole,’ said Rabbit, ‘because of calling it a pole, and if it’s a pole, well, I should think it would be sticking in the ground, shouldn’t you, because there’d be nowhere else to stick it.’