IN WHICH POOH GOES VISITING AND
GETS INTO A TIGHT PLACE
Edward Bear, known to his friends as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for
short, was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to
himself. He had made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing
his Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: _Tra-la-la, tra-la-la_,
as he stretched up as high as he could go, and then _Tra-la-la,
tra-la--oh, help!--la_, as he tried to reach his toes. After breakfast
he had said it over and over to himself until he had learnt it off by
heart, and now he was humming it right through, properly. It went like
this:
_Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,_
_Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,_
_Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum._
_Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,_
_Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,_
_Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um._
Well, he was humming this hum to himself, and walking along gaily,
wondering what everybody else was doing, and what it felt like, being
somebody else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank
was a large hole.
"Aha!" said Pooh. (_Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum._) "If I know anything about
anything, that hole means Rabbit," he said, "and Rabbit means Company,"
he said, "and Company means Food and Listening-to-Me-Humming and such
like. _Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um._"
So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:
"Is anybody at home?"
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then
silence.
"What I said was, 'Is anybody at home?'" called out Pooh very loudly.
"No!" said a voice; and then added, "You needn't shout so loud. I heard
you quite well the first time."
"Bother!" said Pooh. "Isn't there anybody here at all?"
"Nobody."
Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little,
and he thought to himself, "There must be somebody there, because
somebody must have _said_ 'Nobody.'" So he put his head back in the
hole, and said:
"Hallo, Rabbit, isn't that you?"
"No," said Rabbit, in a different sort of voice this time.
"But isn't that Rabbit's voice?"
"I don't _think_ so," said Rabbit. "It isn't _meant_ to be."
"Oh!" said Pooh.
He took his head out of the hole, and had another think, and then he put
it back, and said:
"Well, could you very kindly tell me where Rabbit is?"
"He has gone to see his friend Pooh Bear, who is a great friend of his."
"But this _is_ Me!" said Bear, very much surprised.
"What sort of Me?"
"Pooh Bear."
"Are you sure?" said Rabbit, still more surprised.
"Quite, quite sure," said Pooh.
"Oh, well, then, come in."
So Pooh pushed and pushed and pushed his way through the hole, and at
last he got in.
"You were quite right," said Rabbit, looking at him all over. "It _is_
you. Glad to see you."
"Who did you think it was?"
"Well, I wasn't sure. You know how it is in the Forest. One can't have
_anybody_ coming into one's house. One has to be _careful_. What about a
mouthful of something?"
Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o'clock in the morning,
and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and
when Rabbit said, "Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" he was so
excited that he said, "Both," and then, so as not to seem greedy, he
added, "But don't bother about the bread, please." And for a long time
after that he said nothing ... until at last, humming to himself in a
rather sticky voice, he got up, shook Rabbit lovingly by the paw, and
said that he must be going on.
"Must you?" said Rabbit politely.
"Well," said Pooh, "I could stay a little longer if it--if you----" and
he tried very hard to look in the direction of the larder.
"As a matter of fact," said Rabbit, "I was going out myself directly."
"Oh, well, then, I'll be going on. Good-bye."
"Well, good-bye, if you're sure you won't have any more."
"_Is_ there any more?" asked Pooh quickly.
Rabbit took the covers off the dishes, and said, "No, there wasn't."
"I thought not," said Pooh, nodding to himself. "Well, good-bye. I must
be going on."
So he started to climb out of the hole. He pulled with his front paws,
and pushed with his back paws, and in a little while his nose was out in
the open again ... and then his ears ... and then his front paws ...
and then his shoulders ... and then----
"Oh, help!" said Pooh. "I'd better go back."
"Oh, bother!" said Pooh. "I shall have to go on."
"I can't do either!" said Pooh. "Oh, help _and_ bother!"
Now by this time Rabbit wanted to go for a walk too, and finding the
front door full, he went out by the back door, and came round to Pooh,
and looked at him.
"Hallo, are you stuck?" he asked.
"N-no," said Pooh carelessly. "Just resting and thinking and humming to
myself."
"Here, give us a paw."
Pooh Bear stretched out a paw, and Rabbit pulled and pulled and
pulled....
"_Ow!_" cried Pooh. "You're hurting!"
"The fact is," said Rabbit, "you're stuck."
"It all comes," said Pooh crossly, "of not having front doors big
enough."
"It all comes," said Rabbit sternly, "of eating too much. I thought at
the time," said Rabbit, "only I didn't like to say anything," said
Rabbit, "that one of us was eating too much," said Rabbit, "and I knew
if wasn't _me_," he said. "Well, well, I shall go and fetch Christopher
Robin."
Christopher Robin lived at the other end of the Forest, and when he came
back with Rabbit, and saw the front half of Pooh, he said, "Silly old
Bear," in such a loving voice that everybody felt quite hopeful again.
"I was just beginning to think," said Bear, sniffing slightly, "that
Rabbit might never be able to use his front door again. And I should
_hate_ that," he said.
"So should I," said Rabbit.
"Use his front door again?" said Christopher Robin. "Of course he'll use
his front door again."
"Good," said Rabbit.
"If we can't pull you out, Pooh, we might push you back."
Rabbit scratched his whiskers thoughtfully, and pointed out that, when
once Pooh was pushed back, he was back, and of course nobody was more
glad to see Pooh than _he_ was, still there it was, some lived in trees
and some lived underground, and----
"You mean I'd _never_ get out?" said Pooh.
"I mean," said Rabbit, "that having got _so_ far, it seems a pity to
waste it."
Christopher Robin nodded.
"Then there's only one thing to be done," he said. "We shall have to
wait for you to get thin again."
"How long does getting thin take?" asked Pooh anxiously.
"About a week, I should think."
"But I can't stay here for a _week_!"
"You can _stay_ here all right, silly old Bear. It's getting you out
which is so difficult."
"We'll read to you," said Rabbit cheerfully. "And I hope it won't snow,"
he added. "And I say, old fellow, you're taking up a good deal of room
in my house--_do_ you mind if I use your back legs as a towel-horse?
Because, I mean, there they are--doing nothing--and it would be very
convenient just to hang the towels on them."
"A week!" said Pooh gloomily. "_What about meals?_"
"I'm afraid no meals," said Christopher Robin, "because of getting thin
quicker. But we _will_ read to you."
Bear began to sigh, and then found he couldn't because he was so tightly
stuck; and a tear rolled down his eye, as he said:
"Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a
Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?"
So for a week Christopher Robin read that sort of book at the North end
of Pooh, and Rabbit hung his washing on the South end ... and in
between Bear felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer. And at the
end of the week Christopher Robin said, "_Now!_"
So he took hold of Pooh's front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher
Robin, and all Rabbit's friends and relations took hold of Rabbit, and
they all pulled together....
And for a long time Pooh only said "_Ow!_" ...
And "_Oh!_" ...
And then, all of a sudden, he said "_Pop!_" just as if a cork were
coming out of a bottle.
And Christopher Robin and Rabbit and all Rabbit's friends and relations
went head-over-heels backwards ... and on the top of them came
Winnie-the-Pooh--free!
So, with a nod of thanks to his friends, he went on with his walk
through the forest, humming proudly to himself. But, Christopher Robin
looked after him lovingly, and said to himself, "Silly old Bear!"