Speaker 1: Chapter four of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milney.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter four,
in which Eore loses a tale and Pooh finds one
the old gray donkey. Eore stood by himself in a
thirsty corner of the forest, his front feet well apart,
his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes
he thought sadly to himself why, and sometimes he thought
where four, And sometimes he thought inn so much as which,
And sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.
So when Winnie the Pooh came stumping along, Eorre was
very glad to be able to stop thinking for a
little in order to say how do you do? In
a gloomy manner to him? And how were you? Said
Winnie the Pooh. Eorre shook his head from side to side.
Not very holl he said, I don't seem to have
felt at all how for a long time. Dear, dear,
said Pooh, I'm sorry about that. Let's have a look
at you. So Or stood there gazing sadly at the ground,
and Winnie the Pooh walked all round him. Once. Why oh,
what's happened to your tail? He said in surprise. What
has happened to it? Said Eor? It isn't there? Are
you sure? Well? Either a tail is there or isn't there?
You can't make a mistake about that, and yours isn't there?
Then what isnahing? Let's have a look, said Eore, and
he turned slowly round to the place where his tail
had been a little while ago, and then, finding that
he couldn't catch it up, he turned round the other
way until he came back to where he was at first.
And then he put his head down and looked between
his front legs, and at last he said, with a long,
sad sigh, Oh, I believe you're right. Of course I'm right,
said Pooh. That accounts for a good deal, said Eore gloomily. Hm,
it explains everything. No wonder. You must have left it somewhere,
said Winnie the Pooh. Somebody must have taken it, said Eore.
How like them, he added. After a long silence, Pooh
felt that he ought to say something helpful about it,
but didn't quite know what, so he decided to do
something helpful instead. Eore, he said, solemnly, I Winnie the
pool will find your tail for you. Thank you. Pooh
answered ere, you're a real friend, said he, not like some,
he said, So Winnie the Pooh went off to find
your's tail. It was a fine spring morning in the forest.
As he started out, little soft clouds played happily in
a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front
of the sun, as if they had come to put
it out, and then sliding away suddenly, so that the
next might have his turn through them. Between them, the
sun shone bravely, and a copse, which had worn its
furs all the year round, seemed old and dowdy now
beside the new green lace which the beeches had put
up so prettily. Through copse and Spinny marched bare down
open slopes of gorse and heather, over rocky beds of streams,
up steep banks of sandstone, into the heather again, and so,
at last, tired and hungry, to the hundred acre wood.
For it was in the hundred acre wood that owl lived.
And if anyone knows anything about anything, said bear to himself.
It's all who knows something about something? He said, Oh,
my name's not Winnie the Pooh, he said, which it is,
he added, So there you are. Owell lived in the
chest and old World residence of great charm, which was
grander than anybody else's, or seems so to bear, because
it had both a knocker and a bell poll. Underneath
the knocker there was a notice which said, please ring
if an urn sir is required. Underneath the bell pull
there was a notice which said please knock if an
earned sir is not required. These notices had been written
by Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the
forest who could spell for old Wise. Though he was
in many ways able to read and write and spell
his own name w L, yet somehow went all to
pieces over delicate words like measles and buttered toast. Winnie
the Pooh read the two notices very carefully, first from
left to right, and afterwards in kse he had missed
some of it from right to left. Then, to make
quite sure, he knocked and pulled the knocker, and he
pulled and knocked the bell rope. And he called out
in a very loud voice, Oh, I require an answer.
It's bear speaking. And the door opened and Owl looked out,
Hello Pooh. He said, how's things terrible? And sad, said Pooh,
because ere, who is a friend of mine, has lost
his tail, and he's moping about it, So could you
very calmly tell me how to find it for him? Well?
Said Owl. The customary procedure in such cases is as follows.
What does customony proceed cake mean, said Pooh. For I
am a bear of very little brain and long words
to bother me, it means the thing to do, as
long as it means that I don't mind, said Pooh humbly.
The thing to do is as follows, first issue a reward,
then just the moment, said Pooh, holding up his paw.
What do we do to this? What were you saying?
You sneezed just as you were going to tell me
I didn't sneeze, Yes, you did. All excuse me, Pooh,
I didn't. You can't sneeze without knowing it, Well, you
can't know it without something having been sneezed. What I
said was first issue a reward. You're doing it again,
said Pooh, sadly. A reward, said Owl, very loudly. We
write a notice to say that we will give a
large something to anyone who finds he or's tail. I see,
I see, said Pooh, nodding his head. Talking about large somethings,
he went on dreamily. I generally have a small something
about now about this time in the morning, and he
looked wistfully at the cupboard in the corner of Owl's parlor,
just a mouthful of condensed milk or what not, with
perhaps a lick of honey. Well, then said Owl, we
write out this notice, and we put it up all
over the forest a look of honey. Murmured Bear to himself,
or or not, as the case may be, and he
gave a deep sigh and tried very hard to listen
to what Owl was saying. But Oowl went on and on,
using longer and longer words, until at last he came
back to where he started, and he explained that the
person to write out this notice was Christopher Robin. It
was he who wrote the ones on my front door
for me. Did you see them? Pooh? For some time now,
Pooh had been saying yes and no in turn, with
his eyes shut to all that Owl was saying, and
having said yes yes last time, he said no, not
at all now, without really knowing what Owl was talking about.
Didn't you see them? Said Owl, a little surprised, Come
and look at them now. So they went outside, and
Pooh looked at the knocker and the notice below it,
and he looked at the bell rope and the notice
below it. And the more he looked at the bell rope,
the more he felt that he had seen something like
it somewhere else some time before. HANSO, bell rope, isn't it?
Said Owl Pooh nodded. It reminds me of something, he said,
But I can't think. What where did you get it?
I just came across it in the forest. It was
hanging over a bush, and I thought at first somebody
lived there, so I rang it. Then nothing happened, and
then I rang it again, very loudly, and it came
off in my hand, And as nobody seemed to want it,
I took it home, and all said, Pooh, solemnly, you
made a mistake. Somebody did want it. Who eyore, my
dear friend, or he was he was fond of it,
fond of it, attached to it, said Winnie the Pooh sadly.
So with these words he unhooked it and carried it
back to Ere. And when Christopher Robin had nailed it
on in its right place again, Ere frisked about the forest,
waving his tail so happily that Whinnie the Pooh came
all over funny and had to hurry home for a
little snack of something to sustain him, and wiping his
mouth half an hour afterward, he sang to himself proudly,
who found the tail? I said, Pooh at a quarter
two too, Only it was a quarter two eleven. Really,
I found the tail end of chapter four