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, butsometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only hecould stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And thenhe feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here he isat the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh. When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are goingto say, "But I thought he was a boy?" "So did I," saidChristopher 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 hecomes downstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in frontof 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 helike?" "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 lastFriday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself underthe name of Sanders. ("What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin. "It means he bad the name over the door in gold letters, andlived 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 inthe middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was alarge oak-tree, and, from the top of the tree, there came a loudbuzzing-noise. Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put hishead between his paws and began to think. First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise meanssomething. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzingand buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's abuzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the onlyreason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is becauseyou're a bee. " Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the onlyreason for being a bee that I know of is making honey." And thenhe got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is soas I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree. He climbed and he climbed and he climbed, and as he climbedhe sang a little song to himself. It went like this: Isn't itfunny How a bear likes honey? Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! I wonder why hedoes? Then he climbed a little further... and a little further...and then just a little further. By that time he had thought ofanother song. It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees, They'dbuild their nests at the bottom of trees. And that being so (ifthe Bees were Bears), We shouldn't have to climb up all thesestairs. He was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why hesang a Complaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he juststood on that branch... Crack! "Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branchbelow him. "If only I hadn't---" he said, as he bounced twenty feet onto the next branch. "You see, what I meant to do," he explained, as he turnedhead-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty feetbelow, "what I meant to do-" "Of course, it was rather-" headmitted, as he slithered very quickly through the next sixbranches. "It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-byeto the last branch, spun round three times, and flew gracefullyinto a gorse-bush, "it all comes of liking honey so much. Oh,help!"
He crawled out of the gorse-bush, brushed the prickles fromhis nose, and began to think again. And the first person hethought 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 andlarger, and his face got pinker and pinker.)
So Winnie-the-Pooh went round to his friend ChristopherRobin, who lived behind a green door in another part of theforest.
"Good morning, Christopher Robin,".he said. "Good morning, Winnie-the-Pooh," said you. "I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon aboutyou?" "A balloon?"
"Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder ifChristopher Robin has such a thing as a balloon about him?' Ijust 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 waslistening, 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 daybefore at the house of your friend Piglet, and You had balloonsat the party. You had had a big green balloon; and one ofRabbit's relations had had a big blue one, and had left itbehind, being really too young to go to a party at all; and soyou had brought the green one and the blue one home with you.
"Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh. He put his headbetween his paws and thought very carefully.
"It's like this," he said. "When you go after honey with aballoon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you'recoming. Now, if you have a green balloon, they might think youwere only part of the tree, and not notice you, and if you have ablue balloon, they might think you were only part of the sky, andnot notice you, and the question is: Which is mostlikely?"
"Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?" youasked. "They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "Younever can tell with bees." He thought for a moment and said: "Ishall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceivethem."
"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; andso it was decided.
Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you tookyour gun with you, just in case, as you always did, andWinnie-the-Pooh went to a very muddy place that he knew of, androlled and rolled until he was black all over; and then, when theballoon was blown up as big as big, and you and Pooh were bothholding on to the string, you let go suddenly, andPooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayedthere-level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet awayfrom it.
"Hooray!" you shouted.
"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I look like?"
"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon,"you said.
"Not--" said Pooh anxiously, "--not like a small black cloudin a blue sky?"
"Not very much."
"Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, asI say, you never can tell with bees."
There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so therehe stayed. He could see the honey, he could smell the honey, buthe couldn't quite reach the honey.
After a little while he called down to you.
"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper. "Hallo!" "I think the bees suspect something!" "What sort of thing?" "I don't know. But something tells me that they'resuspicious! " "Perhaps they think that you're after their honey."
"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."
There was another little silence, and then he called down toyou again.
"Christopher Robin!" "Yes? " "Have you an umbrella in your house?" "I think so." "I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and downwith it, and look up at me every now and then, and say 'Tut-tut,it looks like rain.' I think, if you did that, it would help hedeception which we are Practising on these bees."
Well, you laughed to yourself, "Silly old Bear!', but youdidn't say it aloud because you were so fond of him, and you wenthome for Your umbrella.
"Oh, there You are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon asyou got back to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious. Ihave discovered that the bees are now definitely Suspicious."
"Shall I Put my umbrella up?" You said.
"Yes, but wait a moment. We must be Practical. Theimportant bee to deceive is the Queen Bee. Can You see which isthe Queen Bee from down there?"
"No."
"A pity. Well, now, if You walk up and down with Yourumbrella, saying, 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do whatI can by singing a little Cloud Song, such as a cloud mightsing.... Go!"
So, while you walked up and down and wondered if it wouldrain, Winnie-the-pooh sang this song:
How sweet to be a Cloud Floating in the Blue! Every little cloud Always sings aloud.
"How sweet to be a Cloud Floating in the Blue!" It makes him very proud To be a little cloud.
The bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Someof them, indeed, left their nest and flew all round the cloud asit began the second verse of this song, and one bee sat down onthe nose of the cloud for a moment, and then got up again.
"Christopher-ow!- Robin," called out the cloud. "Yes?"
"I have just been thinking, and I have come to a veryimportant decision. These are the wrong sort of bees."
"Are they?"
"Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they wouldmake the wrong sort of honey, shouldn't you?"
"Would they?" "Yes. So I think I shall come down." "How?" asked you.
Winnie-the-Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go ofthe string, he would fall-bump-and he didn't like the idea ofthat. So he thought for a long time, and then he said:
"Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with yourgun. Have you got your gun?"
"Of course I have," you said. "But if I do that, it willspoil the balloon," you said.
"But if you don't, " said Pooh, "I shall have to let go, andthat would spoil me.
When you put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimedvery carefully at the balloon, and fired.
"Ow!" said Pooh. "Did I miss?" you asked. "You didn't exactly miss, " said Pooh, "but you missed theballoon."
"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this timeyou hit the balloon, and the air came slowly out, andWinnie-the-Pooh floated down to the ground.
But his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string ofthe balloon all that time that they stayed up straight in the airfor more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on hisnose he had to blow it off. And I think-but I am not sure-thatthat is why he was always called Pooh.
"Is that the end of the story?" asked Christopher Robin. "That's the end of that one. There are others." "About Pooh and Me?" "And Piglet and Rabbit and all of you. Don't you remember?" "I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget." "That day when Pooh and Piglet tried to catch theHeffalump---"
"They didn't catch it, did they?" "No." "Pooh couldn't, because he hasn't any brain. Did I catchit?" "Well, that comes into the story." Christopher Robin nodded.
"I do remember," he said, "only Pooh doesn't very well, sothat's why he likes having it told to him again. Because thenit's a real story and not just a remembering."
"That's just how I feel," I said.
Christopher Robin gave a deep sigh, picked his Bear up bythe leg, and walked off to the door, trailing Pooh behind him. At the door he turned and said, "Coming to see me have my bath?""I might," I said.
"I didn't hurt him when I shot him, did I?" "Not a bit."
He nodded and went out, and in a moment I heardWinnie-the-Pooh-bump, bump, bump-going up the stairs behind him.
