Winnie-the-Pooh

‘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.’

‘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.