The House at Pooh Corner. A. A. Milne
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and he led the way.
‘There wouldn’t be two houses,’ said Pooh. ‘Not so close together.’
They came round the corner, and there was Eeyore’s house, looking as comfy as anything.
‘There you are,’ said Piglet.
‘Inside as well as outside,’ said Pooh proudly.
Eeyore went inside … and came out again.
‘It’s a remarkable thing,’ he said. ‘It is my house, and I built it where I said I did, so the wind must have blown it here. And the wind blew it right over the wood, and blew it down here, and here it is as good as ever. In fact, better in places.’
‘Much better,’ said Pooh and Piglet together.
‘It just shows what can be done by taking a little trouble,’ said Eeyore. ‘Do you see, Pooh? Do you see, Piglet? Brains first and then Hard Work. Look at it! That’s the way to build a house,’ said Eeyore proudly.
So they left him in it; and Christopher Robin went back to lunch with his friends Pooh and Piglet, and
on the way they told him of the Awful Mistake they had made. And when he had finished laughing, they all sang the Outdoor Song for Snowy Weather the rest of the way home, Piglet, who was still not quite sure of his voice, putting in the tiddely-poms again.
And I know it seems easy, said Piglet to himself, but it isn’t every one who could do it.
CHAPTER TWO in which Tigger comes to the Forest and has breakfast
Winnie-the-Pooh woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and listened. Then he got out of bed, and lit his candle, and stumped across the room to see if anybody was trying to get into his honey-cupboard, and they weren’t, so he stumped back again, blew out his candle, and got into bed. Then he heard the noise again.
‘Is that you, Piglet?’ he said.
But it wasn’t.
‘Come in, Christopher Robin,’ he said.
But Christopher Robin didn’t.
‘Tell me about it tomorrow, Eeyore,’ said Pooh sleepily.
But the noise went on.
‘Worraworraworraworraworra,’ said Whatever-it-was, and Pooh found that he wasn’t asleep after all.
‘What can it be?’ he thought. ‘There are lots of noises in the Forest, but this is a different one. It isn’t a growl, and it isn’t a purr, and it isn’t a bark, and it isn’t the noise-you-make-before-beginning-a-piece-of-poetry, but it’s a noise of some kind, made by a strange animal! And he’s making it outside my door. So I shall get up and ask him not to do it.’
He got out of bed and opened his front door.
‘Hallo!’ said Pooh, in case there was anything outside.
‘Hallo!’ said Whatever-it-was.
‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘Hallo!’
‘Hallo!’
‘Oh, there you are!’ said Pooh. ‘Hallo!’
‘Hallo!’ said the Strange Animal, wondering how long this was going on.
Pooh was just going to say ‘Hallo!’ for the fourth time when he thought that he wouldn’t, so he said, ‘Who is it?’ instead.
‘Me,’ said a voice.
‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘Well, come here.’
So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the candle he and Pooh looked at each other.
‘I’m Pooh,’ said Pooh.
‘I’m Tigger,’ said Tigger.
‘Oh!’ said Pooh, for he had never seen an animal like this before. ‘Does Christopher Robin know about you?’
‘Of course he does,’ said Tigger.
‘Well,’ said Pooh, ‘it’s the middle of the night, which is a good time for going to sleep. And to-morrow morning we’ll have some honey for breakfast. Do Tiggers like honey?’
‘They like everything,’ said Tigger cheerfully.
Then if they like going to sleep on the floor, I’ll go back to bed,’ said Pooh, ‘and we’ll do things in the morning. Good night.’ And he got back into bed and went fast asleep.
When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he saw was Tigger, sitting in front of the glass and looking at himself.
‘Hallo!’ said Pooh.
‘Hallo!’ said Tigger. ‘I’ve found somebody just like me. I thought I was the only one of them.’
Pooh got out of bed, and began to explain what a looking-glass was, but just as he was getting to the interesting part, Tigger said:
‘Excuse me a moment, but there’s something climbing up your table,’ and with one loud Worraworraworraworraworra he jumped at the end of the tablecloth, pulled it to the ground, wrapped himself up in it three times, rolled to the other end of the room, and, after a terrible struggle, got his head into the daylight again, and said cheerfully: ‘Have I won?’
‘That’s my tablecloth,’ said Pooh, as he began to unwind Tigger.
‘I wondered what it was,’ said Tigger.
‘It goes on the table and you put things on it.’
‘Then why did it try to bite me when I wasn’t looking?’
‘I don’t think it did,’ said Pooh.
‘It tried,’ said Tigger, ‘but I was too quick for it.’
Pooh put the cloth back on the table, and he put a large honey-pot on the cloth, and they sat down to breakfast. And as soon as they sat down, Tigger took a large mouthful of honey … and he looked up at the ceiling with his head on one side, and made exploring noises with his tongue, and considering noises, and what-have-we-got-here noises … and then he said in a very decided voice:
‘Tiggers don’t like honey.’
‘Oh!’ said Pooh, and tried to make it sound Sad and Regretful. ‘I thought they liked everything.’
‘Everything except honey,’ said Tigger.
Pooh felt rather pleased about this, and said that, as soon as he had finished his own breakfast, he would take Tigger round to Piglet’s house, and Tigger could try some of Piglet’s haycorns.
‘Thank you, Pooh,’ said Tigger, ‘because haycorns is really what Tiggers like best.’
So after breakfast they went round to see Piglet, and Pooh explained as they went that Piglet was a Very Small Animal who didn’t like bouncing, and asked Tigger not to be too Bouncy just at first. And Tigger, who had been hiding behind trees and jumping out on Pooh’s shadow when it wasn’t looking, said that Tiggers were only bouncy before breakfast, and that as soon as they had had a few haycorns they became Quiet and Refined. So by-and-by they knocked at the door of Piglet’s house.
‘Hallo, Pooh,’