IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN LEADS
AN EXPOTITION TO THE NORTH POLE
One fine day Pooh had stumped up to the top of the Forest to see if
his friend Christopher Robin was interested in Bears at all. At
breakfast that morning (a simple meal of marmalade spread lightly over a
honeycomb or two) he had suddenly thought of a new song. It began like
this:
"_Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear._"
When he had got as far as this, he scratched his head, and thought to
himself "That's a very good start for a song, but what about the second
line?" He tried singing "Ho," two or three times, but it didn't seem to
help. "Perhaps it would be better," he thought, "if I sang Hi for the
life of a Bear." So he sang it ... but it wasn't. "Very well, then,"
he said, "I shall sing that first line twice, and perhaps if I sing it
very quickly, I shall find myself singing the third and fourth lines
before I have time to think of them, and that will be a Good Song. Now
then:"
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
I don't much mind if it rains or snows,
'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice new nose,
I don't much care if it snows or thaws,
'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice clean paws!
Sing Ho! for a Bear!
Sing Ho! for a Pooh!
And I'll have a little something in an hour or two!
He was so pleased with this song that he sang it all the way to the top
of the Forest, "and if I go on singing it much longer," he thought, "it
will be time for the little something, and then the last line won't be
true." So he turned it into a hum instead.
Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big
Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was
going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of
his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready
for Anything.
"Good-morning, Christopher Robin," he called out.
"Hallo, Pooh Bear. I can't get this boot on."
"That's bad," said Pooh.
"Do you think you could very kindly lean against me, 'cos I keep pulling
so hard that I fall over backwards."
Pooh sat down, dug his feet into the ground, and pushed hard against
Christopher Robin's back, and Christopher Robin pushed hard against his,
and pulled and pulled at his boot until he had got it on.
"And that's that," said Pooh. "What do we do next?"
"We are all going on an Expedition," said Christopher Robin, as he got
up and brushed himself. "Thank you, Pooh."
"Going on an Expotition?" said Pooh eagerly. "I don't think I've ever
been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?"
"Expedition, silly old Bear. It's got an 'x' in it."
"Oh!" said Pooh. "I know." But he didn't really.
"We're going to discover the North Pole."
"Oh!" said Pooh again. "What _is_ the North Pole?" he asked.
"It's just a thing you discover," said Christopher Robin carelessly, not
being quite sure himself.
"Oh! I see," said Pooh. "Are bears any good at discovering it?"
"Of course they are. And Rabbit and Kanga and all of you. It's an
Expedition. That's what an Expedition means. A long line of everybody.
You'd better tell the others to get ready, while I see if my gun's all
right. And we must all bring Provisions."
"Bring what?"
"Things to eat."
"Oh!" said Pooh happily. "I thought you said Provisions. I'll go and
tell them." And he stumped off.
The first person he met was Rabbit.
"Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?"
"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens."
"I've got a message for you."
"I'll give it to him."
"We're all going on an Expotition with Christopher Robin!"
"What is it when we're on it?"
"A sort of boat, I think," said Pooh.
"Oh! that sort."
"Yes. And we're going to discover a Pole or something. Or was it a Mole?
Anyhow we're going to discover it."
"We are, are we?" said Rabbit.
"Yes. And we've got to bring Pro--things to eat with us. In case we want
to eat them. Now I'm going down to Piglet's. Tell Kanga, will you?"
He left Rabbit and hurried down to Piglet's house. The Piglet was
sitting on the ground at the door of his house blowing happily at a
dandelion, and wondering whether it would be this year, next year,
sometime or never. He had just discovered that it would be never, and
was trying to remember what "_it_" was, and hoping it wasn't anything
nice, when Pooh came up.
"Oh! Piglet," said Pooh excitedly, "we're going on an Expotition, all of
us, with things to eat. To discover something."
"To discover what?" said Piglet anxiously.
"Oh! just something."
"Nothing fierce?"
"Christopher Robin didn't say anything about fierce. He just said it had
an 'x'."
"It isn't their necks I mind," said Piglet earnestly. "It's their teeth.
But if Christopher Robin is coming I don't mind anything."
In a little while they were all ready at the top of the Forest, and the
Expotition started. First came Christopher Robin and Rabbit, then Piglet
and Pooh; then Kanga, with Roo in her pocket, and Owl; then Eeyore; and,
at the end, in a long line, all Rabbit's friends-and-relations.
"I didn't ask them," explained Rabbit carelessly. "They just came. They
always do. They can march at the end, after Eeyore."
"What I say," said Eeyore, "is that it's unsettling. I didn't want to
come on this Expo--what Pooh said. I only came to oblige. But here I
am; and if I am the end of the Expo--what we're talking about--then
let me _be_ the end. But if, every time I want to sit down for a
little rest, I have to brush away half a dozen of Rabbit's smaller
friends-and-relations first, then this isn't an Expo--whatever it
is--at all, it's simply a Confused Noise. That's what _I_ say."
"I see what Eeyore means," said Owl. "If you ask me----"
"I'm not asking anybody," said Eeyore. "I'm just telling everybody. We
can look for the North Pole, or we can play 'Here we go gathering Nuts
and May' with the end part of an ant's nest. It's all the same to me."
There was a shout from the top of the line.
"Come on!" called Christopher Robin.
"Come on!" called Pooh and Piglet.
"Come on!" called Owl.
"We're starting," said Rabbit. "I must go." And he hurried off to the
front of the Expotition with Christopher Robin.
"All right," said Eeyore. "We're going. Only Don't Blame Me."
So off they all went to discover the Pole. And as they walked, they
chattered to each other of this and that, all except Pooh, who was
making up a song.
"This is the first verse," he said to Piglet, when he was ready with it.
"First verse of what?"
"My song."
"What song?"
"This one."
"Which one?"
"Well, if you listen, Piglet, you'll hear it."
"How do you know I'm not listening?"
Pooh couldn't answer that one, so he began to sing.
They all went off to discover the Pole,
Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all;
It's a Thing you Discover, as I've been tole
By Owl and Piglet and Rabbit and all.
Eeyore, Christopher Robin and Pooh
And Rabbit's relations all went too--
And where the Pole was none of them knew....
Sing Hey! for Owl and Rabbit and all!
"Hush!" said Christopher Robin turning round to Pooh, "we're just coming
to a Dangerous Place."
"Hush!" said Pooh turning round quickly to Piglet.
"Hush!" said Piglet to Kanga.
"Hush!" said Kanga to Owl, while Roo said "Hush!" several times to
himself very quietly.
"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 don'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 a 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 Encyclopædia 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.
"Tell Roo to be quick, somebody," he said. "My tail's getting cold. I
don't want to mention it, but I just mention it. I don't want to
complain but there it is. My tail's cold."
"Here I am!" squeaked Roo.
"Oh, there you are."
"Did you see me swimming?"
Eeyore took his tail out of the water, and swished it from side to side.
"As I expected," he said. "Lost all feeling. Numbed it. That's what it's
done. Numbed it. Well, as long as nobody minds, I suppose it's all
right."
"Poor old Eeyore. I'll dry it for you," said Christopher Robin, and he
took out his handkerchief and rubbed it up.
"Thank you, Christopher Robin. You're the only one who seems to
understand about tails. They don't think--that's what the matter with
some of these others. They've no imagination. A tail isn't a tail to
_them_, it's just a Little Bit Extra at the back."
"Never mind, Eeyore," said Christopher Robin, rubbing his hardest. "Is
_that_ better?"
"It's feeling more like a tail perhaps. It Belongs again, if you know
what I mean."
"Hullo, Eeyore," said Pooh, coming up to them with his pole.
"Hullo, Pooh. Thank you for asking, but I shall be able to use it again
in a day or two."
"Use what?" said Pooh.
"What we are talking about."
"I wasn't talking about anything," said Pooh, looking puzzled.
"My mistake again. I thought you were saying how sorry you were about my
tail, being all numb, and could you do anything to help?"
"No," said Pooh. "That wasn't me," he said. He thought for a little and
then suggested helpfully, "Perhaps it was somebody else."
"Well, thank him for me when you see him."
Pooh looked anxiously at Christopher Robin.
"Pooh's found the North Pole," said Christopher Robin. "Isn't that
lovely?"
Pooh looked modestly down.
"Is that it?" said Eeyore.
"Yes," said Christopher Robin.
"Is that what we were looking for?"
"Yes," said Pooh.
"Oh!" said Eeyore. "Well, anyhow--it didn't rain," he said.
They stuck the pole in the ground, and Christopher Robin tied a message
on to it.
NORTH POLE
DISCOVERED BY POOH
POOH FOUND IT.
Then they all went home again. And I think, but I am not quite sure,
that Roo had a hot bath and went straight to bed. But Pooh went back to
his own house, and feeling very proud of what he had done, had a little
something to revive himself.