Winnie-the-Pooh

‘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.

‘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.’