A.A. Milne - Winnie-the-Pooh

‘Yes, that’s what I thought.’

‘The only thing,’ said Rabbit, ‘is, where is it sticking? ’

‘That’s what we’re looking for,’ said Christopher Robin.

They went back to the others. Piglet was lying on his back, sleeping peacefully. Roo was washing his face and paws in the stream, while Kanga explained to everybody proudly that this was the first time he had ever washed his face himself, and Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopedia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn’t listening.

‘I don’t hold with all this washing,’ grumbled Eeyore. ‘This modern Behind-the-ears nonsense. What do you think, Pooh?’

‘Well,’ said Pooh, ‘ I think—

But we shall never know what Pooh thought, for there came a sudden squeak from Roo, a splash, and a loud cry of alarm from Kanga.

‘So much for washing ,’ said Eeyore.

‘Roo’s fallen in!’ cried Rabbit, and he and Christopher Robin came rushing down to the rescue.

‘Look at me swimming!’ squeaked Roo from the middle of his pool, and was hurried down a waterfall into the next pool.

‘Are you all right, Roo, dear?’ called Kanga anxiously.

‘Yes!’ said Roo. ‘Look at me sw-’ and down he went over the next waterfall into another pool.

Everybody was doing something to help. Piglet, wide awake suddenly, was jumping up and down and making ‘Oo, I say’ noises; Owl was explaining that in a case of Sudden and Temporary Immersion the Important Thing was to keep the Head Above Water; Kanga was jumping along the bank, saying ‘Are you sure you’re all right, Roo dear?’ to which Roo, from whatever pool he was in at the moment, was answering ‘Look at me swimming!’ Eeyore had turned round and hung his tail over the first pool into which Roo fell, and with his back to the accident was grumbling quietly to himself, and saying, ‘All this washing; but catch on to my tail, little Roo, and you’ll be all right’; and Christopher Robin and Rabbit came hurrying past Eeyore, and were calling out to the others in front of them.

‘All right, Roo, I’m coming,’ called Christopher Robin.

‘Get something across the stream lower down, some of you fellows,’ called Rabbit.

But Pooh was getting something. Two pools below Roo he was standing with a long pole in his paws, and Kanga came up and took one end of it, and between them they held it across the lower part of the pool; and Roo, still bubbling proudly, ‘Look at me swimming,’ drifted up against it, and climbed out.

‘Did you see me swimming?’ squeaked Roo excitedly, while Kanga scolded him and rubbed him down. ‘Pooh, did you see me swimming? That’s called swimming, what I was doing. Rabbit, did you see what I was doing? Swimming. Hallo, Piglet! I say, Piglet! What do you think I was doing! Swimming! Christopher Robin, did you see me—’

But Christopher Robin wasn’t listening. He was looking at Pooh.

‘Pooh,’ he said, ‘where did you find that pole?’

Pooh looked at the pole in his hands.

‘I just found it,’ he said. ‘I thought it ought to be useful. I just picked it up.’

‘Pooh,’ said Christopher Robin solemnly, ‘the Expedition is over. You have found the North Pole!’

‘Oh!’ said Pooh.

Eeyore was sitting with his tail in the water when they all got back to him.

‘Tell Roo to be quick, somebody,’ he said. ‘My tail’s getting cold. I don’t want to mention it, but I just mention it. I don’t want to complain, but there it is. My tail’s cold.’

‘Here I am!’ squeaked Roo.

‘Oh, there you are.’

‘Did you see me swimming?’

Eeyore took his tail out of the water, and swished it from side to side.

‘As I expected,’ he said. ‘Lost all feeling. Numbed it. That’s what it’s done. Numbed it. Well, as long as nobody minds, I suppose it’s all right.’

‘Poor old Eeyore! I’ll dry it for you,’ said Christopher Robin, and he took out his handkerchief and rubbed it up.

‘Thank you, Christopher Robin. You’re the only one who seems to understand about tails. They don’t think – that’s what’s the matter with some of these others. They’ve no imagination. A tail isn’t a tail to them , it’s just a Little Bit Extra at the back.’

‘Never mind, Eeyore,’ said Christopher Robin, rubbing his hardest. ‘Is that better?’

‘It’s feeling more like a tail perhaps. It Belongs again, if you know what I mean.’

‘Hullo, Eeyore,’ said Pooh, coming up to them with his pole.

‘Hullo, Pooh. Thank you for asking, but I shall be able to use it again in a day or two.’

‘Use what?’ said Pooh.

‘What we are talking about.’

‘I wasn’t talking about anything,’ said Pooh, looking puzzled.

‘My mistake again. I thought you were saying how sorry you were about my tail, being all numb, and could you do anything to help?’

‘No,’ said Pooh. ‘That wasn’t me,’ he said. He thought for a little and then suggested helpfully: ‘Perhaps it was somebody else.’

‘Well, thank him for me when you see him.’

Pooh looked anxiously at Christopher Robin.

‘Pooh’s found the North Pole,’ said Christopher Robin. ‘Isn’t that lovely?’

Pooh looked modestly down.

‘Is that it?’ said Eeyore.

‘Yes,’ said Christopher Robin.

‘Is that what we were looking for?’

‘Yes,’ said Pooh.

‘Oh!’ said Eeyore. ‘Well, anyhow – it didn’t rain,’ he said.

They stuck the pole in the ground, and Christopher Robin tied a message on to it:

NORTH POLE

DISCOVERED By

POOH

POOH FOUND IT

Then they all went home again. And I think, but I am not quite sure, that Roo had a hot bath and went straight to bed. But Pooh went back to his own house, and feeling very proud of what he had done, had a little something to revive himself.

CHAPTER NINE

in which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water

It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old – three, was it, or four? – never had he seen so much rain. Days and days and days.

‘If only,’ he thought, as he looked out of the window, ‘I had been in Pooh’s house, or Christopher Robin’s house, or Rabbit’s house when it began to rain, then I should have had Company all this time, instead of being here all alone, with nothing to do except wonder when it will stop.’ And he imagined himself with Pooh, saying, ‘Did you ever see such rain, Pooh?’ and Pooh saying, ‘Isn’t it awful , Piglet?’ and Piglet saying, ‘I wonder how it is over Christopher Robin’s way,’ and Pooh saying, ‘I should think poor old Rabbit is about flooded out by this time.’ It would have been jolly to talk like this, and really, it wasn’t much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn’t share them with somebody.

For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder whether it would be coming into his bed soon.