'I didn't think I did,' said Pooh anxiously.
'It's just Eeyore,' said Piglet. 'I thought your Idea was a very good Idea.'
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. And, anyhow, Eeyore was in the river, and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done any harm.
'How did you fall in, Eeyore?' asked Rabbit, as he dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.
'I didn't,' said Eeyore.
'But how … '
'I was BOUNCED,' said Eeyore.
'Oo,' said Roo excitedly, 'did somebody push you?'
'Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side of the river-thinking, if any of you know what that means-when I received a loud BOUNCE.'
'Oh, Eeyore!' said everybody.
'Are you sure you didn't slip?' asked Rabbit wisely.
'Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What did you think I did?'
'But who did it?' asked Roo.
Eeyore didn't answer.
'I expect it was Tigger,' said Piglet nervously.
'But, Eeyore,' said Pooh, 'was it a Joke, or an Accident? I mean …'
'I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river I didn't stop to say to myself, 'Is this a Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?' I just floated to the surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.' If you know what I mean.'
'And where was Tigger?' asked Rabbit.
Before Eeyore could answer, there was a loud noise behind them, and through the hedge came Tigger himself.
'Hallo, everybody,' said Tigger cheerfully.
'Hallo, Tigger,' said Roo.
Rabbit became very important suddenly.
'Tigger,' he said solemnly, 'what happened just now?'
'Just when?' said Tigger a little uncomfortably.
'When you bounced Eeyore into the river.'
'I didn't bounce him.'
'You bounced me,' said Eeyore gruffly.
'I didn't really. I had a cough, and I happened to be behind Eeyore, and I said 'Grrrr-oppp- ptschschschz.''
'Why?' said Rabbit, helping Piglet up, and dusting him. 'It's all right, Piglet.'
'It took me by surprise,' said Piglet nervously.
'That's what I call bouncing,' said Eeyore. 'Taking people by surprise. Very unpleasant habit. I don't mind Tigger being in the Forest,' he went on, 'because it's a large Forest, and there's plenty of room to bounce in it. But I don't see why he should come into my little corner of it, and bounce there. It isn't as if there was anything very wonderful about my little corner. Of course for people who like cold, wet, ugly bits it is something rather special, but otherwise it's just a corner, and if anybody feels bouncy '
'I didn't bounce, I coughed,' said Tigger crossly.
'Bouncy or coffy, it's all the same at the bottom of the river.'
'Well,' said Rabbit, 'all I can say Is-well, here's Christopher Robin, so he can say it.'
Christopher Robin came down from the Forest to the bridge, feeling all sunny and careless, and just as if twice nineteen didn't matter a bit, as it didn't on such a happy afternoon, and he thought that if he stood on the bottom rail of the bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath him, then he would suddenly know everything that there was to be known, and he would be able to tell Pooh, who wasn't quite sure about some of it. Rut when he got to the bridge and saw all the animals there, then he knew that it wasn't that kind of afternoon, but the other kind, when you wanted to do something.
'It's like this, Christopher Robin,' began Rabbit. 'Tigger …'
'No, I didn't,' said Tigger.
'Well, anyhow, there I was,' said Eeyore.
'But I don't think he meant to,' said Pooh.
'He just is bouncy,' said Piglet, 'and he can't help it.'
'Try bouncing me, Tigger,' said Roo eagerly. 'Eeyore, Tigger's going to try me. Piglet, do you think …'
'Yes, yes,' said Rabbit, 'we don't all want to speak at once. The point is, what does Christopher Robin think about it?'
'All I did was I coughed,' said Tigger.
'He bounced,' said Eeyore.
'Well, I sort of boffed,' said Tigger.
'Hush!' said Rabbit, holding up his paw what does Christopher Robin think about it all? That's the point.'
'Well,' said Christopher Robin, not quite sure what it was all about, 'I think …'
'Yes?' said everybody.
'I think we all ought to play Poohsticks.!'
So they did. And Eeyore, who had never played it before, won more times than anybody else; and Roo fell in twice, the first time by accident and the second time on purpose, because he suddenly saw Kanga coming from the Forest, and he knew he'd have to go to bed anyhow. So then Rabbit said he'd go with them; and Tigger and Eeyore went off together, because Eeyore wanted to tell Tigger How to Win at Poohsticks, which you do by letting your stick drop in a twitchy sort of way, if you understand what I mean, Tigger; and Christopher Robin and Pooh and Piglet were left on the bridge by themselves.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath them, saying nothing, and the river said nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon.
'Tigger is all right really,' said Piglet lazily.
'Of course he is,' said Christopher Robin.
'Everybody is really,' said Pooh. 'That's what I think,' said Pooh. 'But I don't suppose I'm right,' he said.
'Of course you are,' said Christopher Robin.
Chapter VII.
In which Tigger is unbounced
ONE day Rabbit and Piglet were sitting outside Pooh's front door listening to Rabbit, and Pooh was sitting with them. It was a drowsy summer afternoon, and the Forest was full of gentle sounds, which all seemed to be saying to Pooh, 'Don't listen to Rabbit, listen to me.' So he got into a comfortable position for not listening to Rabbit, and from time to time he opened his eyes to say 'Ah!' and then closed them again to say 'True,' and from time to time Rabbit said, 'You see what I mean, Piglet ' very earnestly, and Piglet nodded earnestly to show that he did.
'In fact,' said Rabbit, coming to the end of it at last, 'Tigger's getting so Bouncy nowadays that it's time we taught him a lesson. Don't you think so, Piglet?'
Piglet said that Tigger was very Bouncy, and that if they could think of a way of unbouncing him, it would be a Very Good Idea. 'Just what I feel,' said Rabbit. 'What do you say, Pooh?'
Pooh opened his eyes with a jerk and said, 'Extremely.'
