'He's said the wrong thing,' thought Piglet anxiously. 'He ought to have said, 'Ho-ho!' again. Perhaps I had better say it for him.' And, as fiercely as he could, Piglet said: 'Ho-ho!'
'How did you get there, Piglet?' said Christopher Robin in his ordinary voice.
'This is Terrible,' thought Piglet. 'First he talks in Pooh's voice, and then he talks in Christopher Robin's voice, and he's doing it so as to Unsettle me. 'And being now Completely Unsettled, he said very quickly and squeakily: 'This is a trap for Poohs, and I'm waiting to fall in it, ho-ho, what's all this, and then I say ho-ho again.'
'What?' said Christopher Robin.
'A trap for ho-ho's,' said Piglet huskily. 'I've just made it, and I'm waiting for the ho-ho to come- come.'
How long Piglet would have gone on like this I don't know, but at that moment Pooh woke up suddenly and decided that it was sixteen. So he got up; and as he turned his head so as to soothe himself in that awkward place in the middle of the back where something was tickling him, he saw Christopher Robin.
'Hallo!' he shouted joyfully.
'Hallo, Pooh.'
Piglet looked up, and looked away again. And he felt so Foolish and Uncomfortable that he had almost decided to run away to Sea and be a Sailor, when suddenly he saw something.
'Pooh!' he cried. 'There's something climbing up your back.'
'I thought there was,' said Pooh.
'It's Small!' cried Piglet.
'Oh, that's who it is, is it?' said Pooh.
'Christopher Robin, I've found Small!' cried Piglet.
'Well done, Piglet,' said Christopher Robin.
And at these encouraging words Piglet felt quite happy again, and decided not to be a Sailor after all. So when Christopher Robin had helped them out of the Gravel Pit, they all went off together hand-in-hand.
And two days later Rabbit happened to meet Eeyore in the Forest.
'Hallo, Eeyore,' he said, 'what are you looking for?'
'Small, of course,' said Eeyore. 'Haven't you any brain?'
'Oh, but didn't I tell you?' said Rabbit. 'Small was found two days ago.'
There was a moment's silence.
'Ha-ha,' said Eeyore bitterly. 'Merriment and what-not. Don't apologize. It's just what would happen.'
Chapter IV.
In which it is shown that Tiggersdon't climb trees
One day when Pooh was thinking, he thought he would go and see Eeyore, because he hadn't seen him since yesterday. And as he walked through the heather, singing to himself, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't seen Owl since the day before yesterday, so he thought that he would just look in at the Hundred Acre Wood on the way and see if Owl was at home.
Well, he went on singing, until he came to the part of the stream where the stepping-stones were, and when he was in the middle of the third stone he began to wonder how Kanga and Roo and Tigger were getting on, because they all lived together in a different part of the Forest. And he thought, 'I haven't seen Roo for a long time, and if I don't see him to-day it will be a still longer time.' So he sat down on the stone in the middle of the stream, and sang another verse of his song, while he wondered what to do.
The other verse of the song was like this:
The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting in it for a long time, was so warm, too that Pooh had almost decided to go on being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning, when he remembered Rabbit.
'Rabbit,' said Pooh to himself. 'I like talking to Rabbit. He talks about sensible things. He doesn't use long, difficult words, like Owl. He uses short, easy words, like 'What about lunch?' and 'Help yourself, Pooh.' I suppose, really, I ought to go and see Rabbit.'
Which made him think of another verse:
So when he had sung this, he got up off his stone, walked back across the stream, and set off for Rabbit's house.
But he hadn't got far before he began to say to himself:
'Yes, but suppose Rabbit is out?'
'Or suppose I get stuck in his front door again, coming out, as I did once when his front door wasn't big enough?'
'Because I know I'm not getting fatter, but his front door may be getting thinner.'
'So wouldn't it be better if.'
And all the time he was saying things like this he was going more and more westerly, without thinking... until suddenly he found himself at his own front door again.
And it was eleven o'clock.
Which was Time-for-a-little-something...
Half an hour later he was doing what he had always really meant to do, he was stumping off to Piglet's house. And as he walked, he wiped his mouth with the back of his paw, and sang rather a fluffy song through the fur. It went like this:
