Jocelyne
Aha! I knew that "The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh" wasn't a waste of
money...
"Chapter 6 - In Which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins In
By the time it came to the edge of the Forest, the stream had
grown-up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not
runn and jump and sparkle along as it used to when it was younger, but
moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to
itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day." But all the
little streams higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly,
eagerly, having so much to find out before it was too late.
There was a broad track, almost as broad as a road, leading form
the Outland to the Forest, but before it could come to the Forest, it had
to cross this river. So, where it crossed, there was a wooden bridge,
almost as broad as a road, with wooden rails on each side of it.
Christopher Robin could just get his chin to the top rail, if he wanted
to, but it was more fun to stand on the bottom rail, so that he could lean
right over, and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him. Pooh
could get his chin on the bottom rail if he wanted to, but it was more fun
to lie down and get his head under it, and watch the river slipping slowly
away beneath him. And this was the only way in which Piglet and Roo could
watch the river at all, because they were too small to reach the bottome
rail. So they would lie down and watch it... and it slipped away very
slowly, being in no hurry to get there.
One day, when Pooh was walking towards this bridge, he was trying
to make up a piece of poetry about fir-cones, because there they were,
lying about on each side of him, and he felt singy. So he picked a
fir-cone up, and looked at it, and said to himself, "This is a very good
fir-cone, and something ought to rhyme to it." But he couldn't think of
anything. And then this came into his head suddenly:
Here is a myst'ry "Which doesn't make sense," said Pooh, "because Kanga doesn't live
in a tree."
He had just come to the bridge; and not looking where he was
going, he tripped over something, and the fir-cone jerked out of his paw
into the river.
"Bother," said Pooh, as it floated slowly under the bridge, and he
went back to get another fir-cone which had a rhyme to it. But then he
thought that he would just look at the river instead, because it was a
peaceful sort of day, so he lay down and looked at it, and it slipped
slowly away beneath him... and suddenly, there was his fir-cone slipping
away too.
"That's funny," said Pooh. "I dropped it on the other side," said
Pooh, "and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?"
And he went back for some more fir-cones.
It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and
leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one
of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was
the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time he
dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first,
which was what he had said it would do, and the little one came out last,
which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice... and when he
wnet home for tea, he had won thirty-six and lost twenty-eight, which
meant that he was -- that he had --well, you take twenty-eight from
thirty-six, and that's what he was. Instead of the other way round.
And that was the beginning of the game called Poohsticks, which
Pooh invented, and which he and his friends used to play on the edge of
the Forest. But they played with sticks instead of fir-cones, because they
were easier to mark.
(the story continues, with Eeyore falling into the river, and being
mistaken for a very large, grey Poohstick, but this is the basics...)
"It's impossible to be uncheered with a balloon."
-Winnie the Pooh
About a little fir-tree
Owl says it's HIS tree
And Kanga says it's HER tree,
Top of Page || Return to Welcome Page or Index Page || Send us Mail