Winnie the Pooh - Milne Alan Alexander. Страница 12

and it was at that moment that Piglet looked down.

"Help, help!" cried Piglet, "a Heffalump, a Horrible Heffalump!" and he scampered off as hard as he could, still crying out, "Help, help, a Herrible

Hoffalump! Hoff, Hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, Holl, a Hoffable Hellerump!"

And he didn't stop crying and scampering until he got to Christopher Robin's

"Whatever's the matter, Piglet?" said Christopher Robin, who was just getting

"Heff," said Piglet, breathing so hard that he could hardly speak, "a Heff-a

"Up there," said Piglet, waving his paw.

"Like-like- It had the biggest head you ever saw, Christopher Robin. A great enormous thing, like-like nothing. A huge big-well, like a-I don't know-like an enormous big nothing. Like a jar."

"Well," said Christopher Robin, putting on his shoes, "I shall go and look at it. Come on."

Piglet wasn't afraid if he had Christopher Robin with him, so off they went...

"I can hear it, can't you?" said Piglet anxiously, as they got near.

"I can hear something," said Christopher Robin.

It was Pooh bumping his head against a tree-root he had found.

"There!" said Piglet. "Isn't it awful?" And he held on tight to Christopher

Robin's hand.

Suddenly Christopher Robin began to laugh... and he laughed.. and he laughed... and he laughed. And while he was still laughing- Crash went the

Heffalump's head against the tree-root, Smash went the jar, and out came Pooh's

Then Piglet saw what a Foolish Piglet he had been, and he was so ashamed of himself that he ran straight off home and went to bed with a headache. But

"So do I," said Pooh.

EEYORE, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at

"Pathetic," he said. s' That's what it is. Pathetic."

He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at himself in the

water again.

"As I thought," he said. "No better from this side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is."

There was a crackling noise in the bracken behind him, and out came Pooh.

"Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.

"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all

"Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.

"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."

"Oh!" said Pooh. He thought for a long time, and then asked, "What mulberry bush

"Bon-hommy," went on Eeyore gloomily. "French word meaning bonhommy," he explained. "I'm not complaining, but There It Is."

Pooh sat down on a large stone, and tried to think this out. It sounded to him like a riddle, and he was never much good at riddles, being a Bear of Very

Little Brain. So he sang Cottleston Pie instead:

Cottleslon, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.

A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Eeyore didn't actually say that he didn't like it, so Pooh very kindly sang the second verse to him:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fish can't whistle and neither can I.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

Eeyore still said nothing at all, so Pooh hummed the third verse quietly to himself:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

Why does a chicken, I don't know why.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

"That's right," said Eeyore. "Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go gathering

Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself."

"I am," said Pooh.

"Some can," said Eeyore.

"You seem so sad, Eeyore."

"Sad? Why should I be sad? It's my birthday. The happiest day of the year."