The house at Pooh Corner

'Yes, but where's Christopher Robin?' said Rabbit. 'That's the point.'

Owl looked at the notice again. To one of his education the reading of it was easy. 'Gone out, Backson. Bisy, Backson' – just the sort of thing you'd expect to see on a notice.

'It is quite clear what has happened, my dear Rabbit,' he said. 'Christopher Robin has gone out somewhere with Backson. He and Backson are busy together. Have you seen a Backson anywhere about in the Forest lately?'

'I don't know,' said Rabbit. 'That's what I came to ask you. What are they like?'

'Well,' said Owl, 'the Spotted or Herbaceous Backson is just a …'

'At least,' he said, 'it's really more of a …'

'Of course,' he said, 'it depends on the …'

'Well,' said Owl, 'the fact is,' he said, 'I don't know what they're like,' said Owl frankly.

'Thank you,' said Rabbit. And he hurried off to see Pooh.

Before he had gone very far he heard a noise. So he stopped and listened. This was the noise.

NOISE, BY POOH
–
Oh, the butterflies are flying,
Now the winter days are dying,
And the primroses are trying
To be seen.
And the turtle – doves are cooing,
And the woods arc up and doing,
For the violets are blueing
In the green.
Oh, the honey – bees are gumming
On their little wings, and humming
That the summer, which is coming,
Will be fun.
And the cows are almost cooing,
And the turtle – doves are mooing,
Which is why a Pooh is poohing
In the sun.
For the spring is really springing;
You can see a skylark singing,
And the blue-bells, which are ringing,
Can be heard.
And the cuckoo isn't cooing,
But he's cucking and he's ooing,
And a Pooh is simply poohing
Like a bird.

'Hallo, Pooh,' said Rabbit.

'Hallo, Rabbit,' said Pooh dreamily.

'Did you make that song up?'

'Well, I sort of made it up,' said Pooh. 'It isn't Brain,' he went on humbly, 'because You Know Why, Rabbit; but it comes to me sometimes.'

'Ah!' said Rabbit, who never let things come to him, but always went and fetched them. 'Well, the point is, have you seen a Spotted or Herbaceous Backson in the Forest, at all?'

'No,' said Pooh. 'Not a-no,' said Pooh. 'I saw Tigger just now.'

'That's no good.'

'No,' said Pooh. I thought it wasn't.'

'Have you seen Piglet?'

'Yes,' said Pooh. 'I suppose that isn't any good either?' he asked meekly.

'Well, it depends if he saw anything.'

'He saw me,' said Pooh.

Rabbit sat down on the ground next to Pooh and, feeling much less important like that, stood up again.

'What it all comes to is this,' he said. 'What does Christopher Robin do in the morning nowadays?'

'What sort of thing?'

'Well, can you tell me anything you've seen him do in the morning? These last few days.'

'Yes,' said Pooh. 'We had breakfast together yesterday. By the Pine Trees. I'd made up a little basket, just a little, fair-sized basket, an ordinary biggish sort of basket, full of …'

'Yes, yes,' said Rabbit, 'but I mean later than that. Have you seen him between eleven and twelve?'

'Well,' said Pooh, 'at eleven o'clock-at eleven o'clock-well, at eleven o'clock, you see, I generally get home about then. Because I have One or Two Things to Do.'

'Quarter past eleven, then?'

'Well…' said Pooh.

'Half past?'

'Yes,' said Pooh. 'At half past-or perhaps later-I might see him.'

And now that he did think of it, he began to remember that he hadn't seen Christopher Robin about so much lately. Not in the mornings. Afternoons, yes; evenings, yes; before breakfast, yes; just after breakfast, yes. And then, perhaps, 'See you again, Pooh,' and off he'd go.

'That's just it,' said Rabbit. 'Where?'

'Perhaps he's looking for something.'

'What?' asked Rabbit.

'That's just what I was going to say,' said Pooh. And then he added, 'Perhaps he's looking for a… for a…'

'A Spotted or Herbaceous Backson?'

'Yes,' said Pooh. 'One of those. In case it isn't.'

Rabbit looked at him severely.

'I don't think you're helping,' he said.

'No,' said Pooh. 'I do try,' he added humbly.

Rabbit thanked him for trying, and said that he would now go and see Eeyore, and Pooh could walk with him if he liked. But Pooh, who felt another verse of his song coming on him, said he would wait for Piglet, good-bye, Rabbit; so Rabbit went off.

But, as it happened, it was Rabbit who saw Piglet first. Piglet had got up early that morning to pick himself a bunch of violets; and when he had picked them and put them in a pot in the middle of his house, it suddenly came over him that nobody had ever picked Eeyore a bunch of violets, and the more he thought of this, the more he thought how sad it was to be an Animal who had never had a bunch of violets picked for him. So he hurried out again, saying to himself, 'Eeyore, Violets' and then 'Violets, Eeyore,' in case he forgot, because it was that sort of day, and he picked a large bunch and trotted along, smelling them, and feeling very happy, until he came to the place where Eeyore was.

'Oh, Eeyore,' began Piglet a little nervously, because Eeyore was busy.

Eeyore put out a paw and waved him away.

'To-morrow,' said Eeyore. 'Or the next day.' Piglet came a little closer to see what it was. Eeyore had