Winnie the Pooh - Milne Alan Alexander - Страница 20

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.

"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

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

"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.

"Oh!" said Pooh again. "What is the North Pole?" he asked.

"It's just a thing you discover," said Christopher Robin carelessly, not being

"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

"Oh!" said Pooh happily. "I thought you said Provisions. I'll go and tell them."

"Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens."

"I've got a message for you."

"Yes. And we're going to discover a Pole or something. Or was it a Mole? Anyhow

"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?"

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, some time 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.

"Christopher Robin didn't say anything about fierce. He just said it had an

"It isn't their necks I mind," said Piglet earnestly. "It's their teeth. But if

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; ther 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."