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forgotten about it, and nobody quite knew what the party was for; and the more he
thought like this, the more the party got muddled in his mind, like a dream when nothing
goes right.
And the dream began to sing itself over in his head until it became a sort of song. It was an
ANXIOUS POOH SONG.
3 Cheers for Pooh
(For Who?)
For Pooh--
(Why what did he do?)
I thought you knew;
He saved his friend from a wetting!
3 Cheers for Bear!
(For where?)
For Bear--
He couldn't swim,
But he rescued him!
(He rescued who?)
Oh, listen, do!
I am talking of Pooh?
(Of who?)
Of Pooh!
(I'm sorry I keep forgetting).
Well. Pooh was a Bear of Enormous Brain--
(Just say it again!)
Of enormous brain--
(Of enormous what?)
Well, he ate a lot,
And I don't know if he could swim or not,
But he managed to float
On a sort of boat
(On a sort of what?)
Well, a sort of pot--
So now let's give him three hearty cheers
(So now let's give him three hearty whitches?)
And hope he'll be with us for years and years,
And grow in health and wisdom and riches!
3 Cheers for Pooh!
(For who?)
For Pooh--
3 Cheers for Bear
(For where?)
For Bear--
3 Cheers for the wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh!
(Just tell me, somebody--WHAT DID HE DO?)
While this was going on inside him, Owl was talking to Eeyore.
"Eeyore," said Owl, "Christopher Robin is giving a party."
"Very interesting," said Eeyore. "I suppose they will be sending me down the odd bits which
got trodden on. Kind and Thoughtful. Not at all, don't mention it."
"There is an Invitation for you."
"What's that like?"
"An Invitation!"
"Yes, I heard you. Who dropped it?"
"This isn't anything to eat, it's asking you to the party. To-morrow."
Eeyore shook his head slowly.
"You mean Piglet. The little fellow with the exited ears. That's Piglet. I'll tell him."
"No, no!" said Owl, getting quite fussy. "It's you!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. Christopher Robin said 'All of them! Tell all of them.'"
"All of them, except Eeyore?"
"All of them," said Owl sulkily.
"Ah!" said Eeyore. "A mistake, no doubt, but still, I shall come. Only don't blame me if it
rains."
But it didn't rain. Christopher Robin had made a long table out of some long pieces of
wood, and they all sat round it. Christopher Robin sat at one end, and Pooh sat at the
other, and between them on one side were Owl and Eeyore and Piglet, and between them
on the other side were Rabbit, and Roo and Kanga. And all Rabbit's friends and relations
spread themselves about on the grass, and waited hopefully in case anybody spoke to them,
or dropped anything, or asked them the time.
It was the first party to which Roo had ever been, and he was very excited. As soon as ever
they had sat down he began to talk.
"Hallo, Pooh!" he squeaked.
"Hallo, Roo!" said Pooh.
Roo jumped up and down in his seat for a little while and then began again.
"Hallo, Piglet!" he squeaked.
Piglet waved a paw at him, being too busy to say anything.
"Hallo, Eeyore!" said Roo.
Eeyore nodded gloomily at him. "It will rain soon, you see if it doesn't," he said.
Roo looked to see if it didn't, and it didn't, so he said "Hallo, Owl!"--and Owl said "Hallo,
my little fellow," in a kindly way, and went on telling Christopher Robin about an
accident which had nearly happened to a friend of his whom Christopher Robin didn't
know, and Kanga said to Roo, "Drink up your milk first, dear, and talk afterwards." So
Roo, who was drinking his milk, tried to say that he could do both at once . . . and had to
be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwards.
When they had all nearly eaten enough, Christopher Robin banged on the table with his
spoon, and everybody stopped talking and was very silent, except Roo who was just
finishing a loud attack of hiccups and trying to look as if it was one of Rabbit's relations.
"This party," said Christopher Robin, "is a party because of what someone did, and we all
know who it was, and it's his party, because of what he did, and I've got a present for him
and here it is." Then he felt about a little and whispered, "Where is it?"
While he was looking, Eeyore coughed in an impressive way and began to speak.
"Friends," he said, "including oddments, it is a great pleasure, or perhaps I had better say it
has been a pleasure so far, to see you at my party. What I did was nothing. Any of
you-except Rabbit and Owl and Kanga--would have done the same. Oh, and Pooh. My
remarks do not, of course, apply to Piglet and Roo, because they are too small. Any of you
would have done the same. But it just happened to be Me. It was not, I need hardly say,
with an idea of getting what Christopher Robin is looking for now"--and he put his front
leg to his mouth and said in a loud whisper, "Try under the table"--"that I did what I
did--but because I feel that we should all do what we can to help. I feel that we should
all----"
"H--hup!" said Roo accidentally.
"Roo, dear!" said Kanga reproachfully.
"Was it me?" asked Roo, a little surprised.
"What's Eeyore talking about?" Piglet whispered to Pooh.
"I don't know," said Pooh rather dolefully.
"I thought this was your party."
"I thought it was once. But I suppose it isn't."
"I'd sooner it was yours than Eeyore's," said Piglet.
"So would I," said Pooh.
"H--hup!" said Roo again.
"AS--I--WAS--SAYING," said Eeyore loudly and sternly, "as I was saying when I was
interrupted by various Loud Sounds, I feel that--"
"Here it is!" cried Christopher Robin excitedly. "Pass it down to silly old Pooh. It's for
Pooh."
"For Pooh?" said Eeyore.
"Of course it is. The best bear in all the world."
"I might have known," said Eeyore. "After all, one can't complain. I have my friends.
Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit
bumped into me and said 'Bother!' The Social Round. Always something going on."
Nobody was listening, for
they were all saying, "Open
it, Pooh," "What is it, Pooh?"
"I know what it is," "No, you
don't," and other helpful
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