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 thernback of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows,rnthe only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that therernreally is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment andrnthink of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here hernis at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh.rnrnWhen I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, "ButrnI thought he was a boy?"rnrn"So did I," said Christopher Robin.rnrn"Then you can't call him Winnie?"rnrn"I don't."rnrn"But you said----"rnrn"He's Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don't you know what '_ther_' means?"rnrn"Ah, yes, now I do," I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because itrnis all the explanation you are going to get.rnrnSometimes Winnie-the-Pooh likes a game of some sort when he comesrndownstairs, and sometimes he likes to sit quietly in front of the firernand listen to a story. This evening----rnrn"What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.rnrn"_What_ about a story?" I said.rnrn"Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"rnrn"I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?"rnrn"About himself. Because he's _that_ sort of Bear."rnrn"Oh, I see."rnrn"So could you very sweetly?"rnrn"I'll try," I said.rnrnSo I tried.rnrn * * * * *rnrnOnce upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday,rnWinnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name ofrnSanders.rnrn(_"What does 'under the name' mean?" asked Christopher Robin._rnrn"_It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and livedrnunder it._"rnrn_"Winnie-the-Pooh wasn't quite sure," said Christopher Robin._rnrn_"Now I am," said a growly voice._rnrn_"Then I will go on," said I._)rnrnOne day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middlernof the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree,rnand, from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.rnrnWinnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head betweenrnhis paws and began to think.rnrnFirst of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something.rnYou don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing,rnwithout its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody'srnmaking a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noisernthat _I_ know of is because you're a bee."rnrnThen he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason forrnbeing a bee that I know of is making honey."rnrnAnd then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey isrnso as _I_ can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.rnrnHe climbed and he climbed and he climbed, and as he climbed he sang arnlittle song to himself. It went like this:rnrn Isn't it funnyrn How a bear likes honey? Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! I wonder why he does?rnrnThen he climbed a little further ... and a little further ... andrnthen just a little further. By that time he had thought of another song.rnrn 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.rnrnHe was getting rather tired by this time, so that is why he sang arnComplaining Song. He was nearly there now, and if he just stood on thatrnbranch ...rnrn_Crack!_rnrn"Oh, help!" said Pooh, as he dropped ten feet on the branch below him.rnrn"If only I hadn't----" he said, as he bounced twenty feet on to the nextrnbranch.rnrn"You see, what I _meant_ to do," he explained, as he turnedrnhead-over-heels, and crashed on to another branch thirty feet below,"what I _meant_ to do----"rnrn"Of course, it _was_ rather----" he admitted, as he slithered veryrnquickly through the next six branches.rnrn"It all comes, I suppose," he decided, as he said good-bye to the lastrnbranch, spun round three times, and flew gracefully into a gorse-bush,"it all comes of _liking_ honey so much. Oh, help!"rnrnHe crawled out of the gorse-bush, brushed the prickles from his nose,rnand began to think again. And the first person he thought of wasrnChristopher Robin.rnrn(_"Was that me?" said Christopher Robin in an awed voice, hardly daringrnto believe it._rnrn"_That was you._"rnrn_Christopher Robin said nothing, but his eyes got larger and larger, andrnhis face got pinker and pinker._)rnrnSo Winnie-the-Pooh went round to his friend Christopher Robin, who livedrnbehind a green door in another part of the forest.rnrn"Good morning, Christopher Robin," he said.rnrn"Good morning, Winnie-_ther_-Pooh," said you.rnrn"I wonder if you've got such a thing as a balloon about you?"rnrn"A balloon?"rnrn"Yes, I just said to myself coming along: 'I wonder if Christopher Robinrnhas such a thing as a balloon about him?' I just said it to myself,rnthinking of balloons, and wondering."rnrn"What do you want a balloon for?" you said.rnrnWinnie-the-Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening, put hisrnpaw to his mouth, and said in a deep whisper: "_Honey!_"rnrn"But you don't get honey with balloons!"rnrn"_I_ do," said Pooh.rnrnWell, it just happened that you had been to a party the day before atrnthe house of your friend Piglet, and you had balloons at the party. Yournhad had a big green balloon; and one of Rabbit's relations had had a bigrnblue one, and had left it behind, being really too young to go to arnparty at all; and so you had brought the green one _and_ the blue onernhome with you.rnrn"Which one would you like?" you asked Pooh.rnrnHe put his head between his paws and thought very carefully.rnrn"It's like this," he said. "When you go after honey with a balloon, therngreat thing is not to let the bees know you're coming. Now, if you haverna green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, andrnnot notice you, and, if you have a blue balloon, they might think yournwere only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is:rnWhich is most likely?"rnrn"Wouldn't they notice _you_ underneath the balloon?" you asked.rnrn"They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never canrntell with bees." He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to lookrnlike a small black cloud. That will deceive them."rnrn"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; and so it wasrndecided.rnrnWell, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you took your gunrnwith you, just in case, as you always did, and Winnie-the-Pooh went to arnvery muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he wasrnblack all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big,rnand you and Pooh were both holding on to the string, you let gornsuddenly, and Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayedrnthere--level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away fromrnit.rnrn"Hooray!" you shouted.rnrn"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I lookrnlike?"rnrn"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.rnrn"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "--not like a small black cloud in a bluernsky?"rnrn"Not very much."rnrn"Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, yournnever can tell with bees."rnrnThere was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so there he stayed. Herncould see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't quiternreach the honey.rnrnAfter a little while he called down to you.rnrn"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.rnrn"Hallo!"rnrn"I think the bees _suspect_ something!"rnrn"What sort of thing?"rnrn"I don't know. But something tells me that they're _suspicious_!"rnrn"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey."rnrn"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."rnrnThere was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.rnrn"Christopher Robin!"rnrn"Yes?"rnrn"Have you an umbrella in your house?"rnrn"I think so."rnrn"I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and down with it, andrnlook up at me every now and then, and say 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain.'rnI think, if you did that, it would help the deception which we arernpractising on these bees."rnrnWell, you laughed to yourself, "Silly old Bear!" but you didn't say itrnaloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for yourrnumbrella.rnrn"Oh, there you are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon as you gotrnback to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious. I have discoveredrnthat the bees are now definitely Suspicious."rnrn"Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.rnrn"Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee torndeceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is the Queen Bee from downrnthere?"rnrn"No."rnrn"A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying,'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a littlernCloud Song, such as a cloud might sing.... Go!"rnrnSo, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain,rnWinnie-the-Pooh sang this song:rnrn How sweet to be a Cloudrn Floating in the Blue! Every little cloudrn _Always_ sings aloud.rnrn "How sweet to be a Cloudrn Floating in the Blue!" It makes him very proudrn To be a little cloud.rnrnThe bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them,rnindeed, left their nests and flew all round the cloud as it began thernsecond verse of this song, and one bee sat down on the nose of the cloudrnfor a moment, and then got up again.rnrn"Christopher--_ow!_--Robin," called out the cloud.rnrn"Yes?"rnrn"I have just been thinking, and I have come to a very importantrndecision. _These are the wrong sort of bees._"rnrn"Are they?"rnrn"Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they would make the wrong sortrnof honey, shouldn't you?"rnrn"Would they?"rnrn"Yes. So I think I shall come down."rnrn"How?" asked you.rnrnWinnie-the-Pooh hadn't thought about this. If he let go of the string,rnhe would fall--_bump_--and he didn't like the idea of that. So hernthought for a long time, and then he said:rnrn"Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with your gun. Have yourngot your gun?"rnrn"Of course I have," you said. "But if I do that, it will spoil thernballoon," you said.rnrn"But if you _don't_," said Pooh, "I shall have to let go, and that wouldrnspoil _me_."rnrnWhen he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed veryrncarefully at the balloon, and fired.rnrn"_Ow!_" said Pooh.rnrn"Did I miss?" you asked.rnrn"You didn't exactly _miss_," said Pooh, "but you missed the _balloon_."rnrn"I'm so sorry," you said, and you fired again, and this time you hit thernballoon, and the air came slowly out, and Winnie-the-Pooh floated downrnto the ground.rnrnBut his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string of the balloonrnall that time that they stayed up straight in the air for more than arnweek, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow itrnoff. And I think--but I am not sure--that _that_ is why he was alwaysrncalled Pooh.rnrn * * * * *rnrn"Is that the end of the story?" asked Christopher Robin.rnrn"That's the end of that one. There are others."rnrn"About Pooh and Me?"rnrn"And Piglet and Rabbit and all of you. Don't you remember?"rnrn"I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget."rnrn"That day when Pooh and Piglet tried to catch the Heffalump----"rnrn"They didn't catch it, did they?"rnrn"No."rnrn"Pooh couldn't, because he hasn't any brain. Did _I_ catch it?"rnrn"Well, that comes into the story."rnrnChristopher Robin nodded.rnrn"I do remember," he said, "only Pooh doesn't very well, so that's why hernlikes having it told to him again. Because then it's a real story andrnnot just a remembering."rnrn"That's just how _I_ feel," I said.rnrnChristopher Robin gave a deep sigh, picked his Bear up by the leg, andrnwalked off to the door, trailing Pooh behind him. At the door he turnedrnand said, "Coming to see me have my bath?"rnrn"I might," I said.rnrn"I didn't hurt him when I shot him, did I?"rnrn"Not a bit."rnrnHe nodded and went out, and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh--_bump,rnbump, bump_--going up the stairs behind him.