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05 - In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One · Winnie-the-Pooh

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Chapter four, in which Eoor loses
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  Speaker 1: a tale and Pooh finds one. The old gray donkey
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  Speaker 1: Eore stood by himself in the thistly corner of the forest,
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  Speaker 1: his front feet well apart, his head on one side,
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  Speaker 1: and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself why,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes he thought wherefore? And sometimes he thought inasmuch
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  Speaker 1: as which, and sometimes he didn't quite know what he
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  Speaker 1: was thinking about. So when Winnie the Pooh came stumping along,
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  Speaker 1: Yorre was very glad to be able to stop thinking
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  Speaker 1: for a little in order to say how do you do?
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  Speaker 1: In a gloomy manner to him?
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  Speaker 2: And how are you?
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  Speaker 1: Said Winnie the Pooh or shook his head from side
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  Speaker 1: to side.
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  Speaker 2: Not very how, he said. I don't seem to have
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  Speaker 2: felt at all how for a long time, dear dear,
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  Speaker 2: said Pooh, I'm sorry about that. Let's have a look
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  Speaker 2: at you.
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  Speaker 1: So your stood there, gazing sadly at the ground, and
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  Speaker 1: Winnie the Pooh walked all round him once.
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  Speaker 2: Why what's happened to your tail?
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  Speaker 1: He said, in surprise.
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  Speaker 2: What has happened to it? Said eor It isn't there?
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  Speaker 2: Are you sure? Well? Either a tail is there or
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  Speaker 2: it isn't there. You can't make a mistake about it,
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  Speaker 2: And yours isn't there? Then what is nothing?
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  Speaker 1: Let's have a look, said Eorre, and he turned slowly
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  Speaker 1: round to the place where his tail had been a
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  Speaker 1: little while ago, and then, finding that he couldn't catch
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  Speaker 1: it up, he turned round the other way until he
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  Speaker 1: came back to where he was at first, And then
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  Speaker 1: he put his head down and looked between his front legs,
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  Speaker 1: and at last he said, with a long, sad sigh.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, I believe you're right.
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  Speaker 1: Of course I'm right, said Pooh.
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  Speaker 2: That accounts for a good.
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  Speaker 1: Deal, said Eyor gloomily. It explains everything.
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  Speaker 2: No wonder, you must have left it somewhere, said Winnie
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  Speaker 2: the Pooh. Somebody must have taken it, said Eyore.
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  Speaker 1: How like them, he added. After a long silence, Pooh
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  Speaker 1: felt that he ought to say something helpful about it,
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  Speaker 1: but didn't quite know what, so he decided to do
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  Speaker 1: something helpful instead. Yore, he said solemnly.
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  Speaker 2: I Winnie the Pooh will find your tail for you.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. Pooh answered, Eyore.
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  Speaker 2: You're a real friend.
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  Speaker 1: Said he, not like some, he said, So Winnie the
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  Speaker 1: Pooh went off to find Eore's tail. It was a
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  Speaker 1: fine spring morning in the forest. As he started out,
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  Speaker 1: little soft clouds played heavily in a blue sky, skipping
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  Speaker 1: from time to time in front of the sun, as
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  Speaker 1: if they had come to put it out, and then
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  Speaker 1: sliding away suddenly, so that the next might have his
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  Speaker 1: turn through them. And between them the sun shone bravely,
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  Speaker 1: and a copse, which had worn its furs all the
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  Speaker 1: year round, seemed old and dowdy now beside the new
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  Speaker 1: green lace which the beeches had put on so prettily.
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  Speaker 1: Through copse and Spinny marched bare down open slopes of
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  Speaker 1: gorse and heather, over rocky beds of streams, up steep
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  Speaker 1: banks of sandstone, into the heather again, and so at last,
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  Speaker 1: tired and hungry, to the hundred acre wood. For it
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  Speaker 1: was in the hundred acre wood that owl lived.
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  Speaker 2: And if anyone knows anything about anything.
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  Speaker 1: Said bear to himself, it's.
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  Speaker 2: Owl who knows something about something. He said, or my
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  Speaker 2: name's not Winnie the Pool, he said, which it is,
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  Speaker 2: he added, So there you are. Owl lived at the Chestnuts,
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  Speaker 2: an old world residence of great charm, which was grander
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  Speaker 2: than anybody else's, or seemed so to bear, because it
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  Speaker 2: had both a knocker and a bell pole.
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  Speaker 1: Underneath the knocker there was a notice which said, please
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  Speaker 1: ring if an answer is recurred. Underneath the bell poll
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  Speaker 1: there was a notice which said, please connoke if an
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  Speaker 1: answer is not requid. These notices had been written by
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the forest
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  Speaker 1: who could spell for Owl.
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  Speaker 2: Wise, though he.
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  Speaker 1: Was in many ways able to read and write and
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  Speaker 1: spell his name w O L, yet somehow went all
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  Speaker 1: to pieces over delicate words like measles and buttered toast.
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  Speaker 1: Winnie the Pooh read the two notices very carefully, first
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  Speaker 1: from left to right, and afterwards, in case he had
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  Speaker 1: missed some of it, from right to left. Then, to
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  Speaker 1: make quite sure, he knocked and pulled the knocker, and
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  Speaker 1: he pulled and knocked the bell rope. And he called
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  Speaker 1: out in a very loud voice, Owl, I.
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  Speaker 2: Require an answer. It's Bear speaking.
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  Speaker 1: And the door opened and Owl looked out.
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  Speaker 3: Hallo Pooh, He said, how is things terrible?
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  Speaker 2: And sad? Said Pooh, because Eor, who is a friend
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  Speaker 2: of mine, has lost his tail and he's moving about it.
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  Speaker 2: So could you very kindly tell me how to find
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  Speaker 2: it for him?
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  Speaker 1: Well, said Owl.
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  Speaker 3: The customary procedure in such cases is as follows.
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  Speaker 2: What does crustimony precede cake mean, said Pooh? For I
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  Speaker 2: am a bear of very little brain and long words
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  Speaker 2: bother me.
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  Speaker 3: It means the thing to do.
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  Speaker 2: As long as it means that I don't mind.
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  Speaker 1: Said Pooh humbly.
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  Speaker 3: The thing to do is as follows. First, if you
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  Speaker 3: a reward, then just.
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  Speaker 1: A moment, said Pooh, holding up his paw.
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  Speaker 2: What do we do to this? What were you saying
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  Speaker 2: you'd sneeze, just as you are going to tell me?
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  Speaker 2: I didn't sneeze, Yes you did, Owl, Excuse.
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  Speaker 3: Me, Boo, I didn't. You can't sneeze without knowing.
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  Speaker 2: It, Well, you can't know it without something having been sneezed.
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  Speaker 3: What I said was first, issue a reward.
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  Speaker 1: You're doing it again, said Pooh, sadly. Our reward, said Owl,
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  Speaker 1: very loudly.
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  Speaker 3: We write a notice to say that we will give
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  Speaker 3: a large something to anybody who finds your's tail.
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  Speaker 2: I see, I see.
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  Speaker 1: Said Pooh, nodding his head.
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  Speaker 2: Talking about large somethings.
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  Speaker 1: He went on dreamily, I.
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  Speaker 2: Generally have a small something about now about this time
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  Speaker 2: in the morning, and.
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  Speaker 1: He looked wistfully at the cupboard in the corner of
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  Speaker 1: Owl's parlor.
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  Speaker 2: Just a mouthful of condensed milk or what not, with
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  Speaker 2: perhaps a lick of honey.
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  Speaker 3: Well, then said Owl, we write out this notice, and
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  Speaker 3: we put it up all over the forest.
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  Speaker 2: A lick of honey.
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  Speaker 1: Murmured Bear to himself, or.
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  Speaker 2: Or not, as the case may be, and he gave a.
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  Speaker 1: Deep sigh and tried very hard to listen to what
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  Speaker 1: Owl was saying. But Owl went on and on, using
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  Speaker 1: longer and longer words, until at last he came back
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  Speaker 1: to where he started, and he explained that the person
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  Speaker 1: to write out this notice was Christopher Robin.
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  Speaker 3: It was he who wrote the ones on my front
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  Speaker 3: door for me? Did you see them?
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  Speaker 2: Pooh?
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  Speaker 1: For some time now? Who had been saying yes and no?
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  Speaker 1: In turn, with his eyes shut to all that Owl
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  Speaker 1: was saying, and having said yes yes last time, he
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  Speaker 1: said no, not at all now, without really knowing what
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  Speaker 1: Owl was talking about.
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  Speaker 3: Didn't you see them?
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  Speaker 1: Said Owl, a little surprised.
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  Speaker 3: Come in and look at them now.
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  Speaker 1: So they went outside, and Pooh looked at the knocker
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  Speaker 1: and the notice below it, and he looked at the
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  Speaker 1: bell rope and the notice below it. And the more
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  Speaker 1: he looked at the bell rope, the more he felt
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  Speaker 1: that he had seen something like it somewhere else, some
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  Speaker 1: time before.
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  Speaker 3: Handsome bell rope, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: Said Owl? Pooh nodded.
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  Speaker 2: It reminds me of something, he said, But I can't
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  Speaker 2: think what where did you get it?
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  Speaker 3: I just came across it in the forest. It was
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  Speaker 3: hanging over a bush, and I thought at first somebody
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  Speaker 3: lived there, so I rang it and nothing happened. And
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  Speaker 3: then I rang it again, very loudly, and it came
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  Speaker 3: off in my hand, and as nobody seemed to want it,
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  Speaker 3: I took it home, and Owl said, Pooh, solemnly.
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  Speaker 2: You made a mistake. Somebody did want it? Who e
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  Speaker 2: or my dear friend Eyore? He was. He was fond
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  Speaker 2: of it, fond of it, attached to.
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  Speaker 1: It, said Winnie the Pooh sadly. So with these words
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  Speaker 1: he unhooked it and carried it back to Eore. And
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  Speaker 1: when Christopher Robin had nailed it on in its right
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  Speaker 1: place again. Eore frisked about the forest, waving his tail
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  Speaker 1: so happily that Winnie the poo came over all funny
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  Speaker 1: and had to hurry home for a little snack of
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  Speaker 1: something to sustain him, and wiping his mouth. Half an
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  Speaker 1: hour afterwards, he sang to himself proudly.
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  Speaker 2: Who found the tale? I said, pooh, at a.
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  Speaker 1: Quarter to two, Only it was quarter to eleven.
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  Speaker 2: Really, I found the tale.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter four