MINERVA

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Winnie-the-Pooh Title: Winnie-the-Pooh Author: A. A. Milne CHAPTER I IN WHICH WE ARE INTRODUCED TO WINNIE-THE-POOH AND SOME BEES, AND THE STORIES BEGIN Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here he is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh. When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, "But I thought he was a boy?" "So did I," said Christopher Robin. "Then you can't call him Winnie?" "I don't." "But you said----" "He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what '_ther_' means?" "Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get. Sometimes Winnie-the-Pooh likes a game of some sort when he comes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in front of the fire and listen to a story. This evening---- "What about a story?" said Christopher Robin. "_What_ about a story?" I said. "Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?" "I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?" "About himself. Because he's _that_ sort of Bear." "Oh, I see." "So could you very sweetly?" "I'll try," I said. So I tried. * * * * * Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders. (_"What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin._ "_It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it._" _"Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin._ _"Now I am," said a growly voice._ _"Then I will go on," said I._) One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise. Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws and began to think. First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that _I_ know of is because you're a bee." Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey." And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so as _I_ can eat it." So he began to climb the tree. He climbed and he climbed and he climbed, and as he climbed he sang a little song to himself. It went like this: Isn't it funny How a bear likes honey? Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! I wonder why he does? Then he climbed a little further ... and a little further ... and then just a little further. By that time he had thought of another song. It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees, They'd build their nests at the _bottom_ of trees. And that being so (if the Bees were Bears), We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs. He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang a Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on that branch ... _Crack!_ "Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branch below him. "If only I hadn't----" he said, as he bounced twenty feet on to the next branch. "You see, what I _meant_ to do," he explained, as he turned head-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty feet below, "what I _meant_ to do----" "Of course, it _was_ rather----" he admitted, as he slithered very quickly through the next six branches. "It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the last branch, spun round three times, and flew gracefully into a gorse-bush, "it all comes of _liking_ honey so much. Oh, help!" He crawled out of the gorse-bush, brushed the prickles from his nose, and began to think again. And the first person he thought of was Christopher Robin. (_"Was that me?" said Christopher Robin in an awed voice, hardly daring to believe it._ "_That was you._" _Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger and larger, and his face got pinker and pinker._) So Winnie-the-Pooh went round to his friend Christopher Robin, who lived behind a green door in another part of the forest. "Good morning, Christopher Robin," he said. "Good morning, Winnie-_ther_-Pooh," said you. "I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon about you?" "A balloon?" "Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder if Christopher Robin has such a thing as a balloon about him?' I just said it to myself, thinking of balloons, and wondering." "What do you want a balloon for?" you said. Winnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put his paw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: "_Honey!_" "But you don't get honey with balloons!" "_I_ do," said Pooh. Well, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before at the house of your friend Piglet, and you had balloons at the party. You had had a big green balloon; and one of Rabbit's relations had had a big blue one, and had left it behind, being really too young to go to a party at all; and so you had brought the green one _and_ the blue one home with you. "Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh. He put his head between his paws and th