‘Tiddely pom … ’
‘Pooh!’ shouted Christopher Robin …
The singers on the gate stopped suddenly.
‘It’s Christopher Robin!’ said Pooh eagerly.
‘He’s round by the place where we got all those sticks from,’ said Piglet.
‘Come on,’ said Pooh.
They climbed down their gate and hurried round the corner of the wood, Pooh making welcoming noises all the way.
‘Why, here is Eeyore,’ said Pooh, when he had finished hugging Christopher Robin, and he nudged Piglet, and Piglet nudged him, and they thought to themselves what a lovely surprise they had got ready. ‘Hallo, Eeyore.’
‘Same to you, Pooh Bear, and twice on Thursdays,’ said Eeyore gloomily.
Before Pooh could say: ‘Why Thursdays?’ Christopher Robin began to explain the sad story of Eeyore’s Lost House. And Pooh and Piglet listened, and their eyes seemed to get bigger and bigger.
‘Where did you say it was?’ asked Pooh.
‘Just here,’ said Eeyore.
‘Made of sticks?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh!’ said Piglet.
‘What?’ said Eeyore.
‘I just said “Oh!” said Piglet nervously. And so as to seem quite at ease he hummed tiddely-pom once or twice in a what-shall-we-do-now kind of way.
‘You’re sure it was a house?’ said Pooh. ‘I mean, you’re sure the house was just here?’
‘Of course I am,’ said Eeyore. And he murmured to himself, ‘No brain at all, some of them.’
‘Why, what’s the matter, Pooh?’ asked Christopher Robin.
‘Well,’ said Pooh … ‘The fact is,’ said Pooh … ‘Well, the fact is,’ said Pooh … ‘You see,’ said Pooh … ‘It’s like this,’ said Pooh, and something seemed to tell him that he wasn’t explaining very well, and he nudged Piglet again.
‘It’s like this,’ said Piglet quickly … ‘Only warmer,’ he added after deep thought.
‘What’s warmer?’
‘The other side of the wood, where Eeyore’s house is.’
‘My house?’ said Eeyore. ‘My house was here.’
‘No,’ said Piglet firmly ‘The other side of the wood.’
‘Because of being warmer,’ said Pooh.
‘But I ought to know –’
‘Come and look,’ said Piglet simply, 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
