Alan Alexander Miln. The house at Pooh Corner -
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"He'll notice me, and I shall notice him," said Pooh,
thinking it out. "We'll notice each other for a long time, and
then he'll say: 'Ho-ho!'"
Piglet shivered a little at the thought of that
"Ho-ho!" and his ears began to twitch.
"W-what will you say?" he asked.
Pooh tried to think of something he would say, but the
more he thought, the more he felt that there is no real answer
to "Ho-ho!" said by a Heffalump in the sort of voice this
Heffalump was going to say it in.
"I shan't say anything," said Pooh at last. "I shall
just hum to myself, as if I was waiting for something."
"Then perhaps he'll say 'Ho-ho!' again?" suggested
Piglet anxiously.
"He will," said Pooh.
Piglet's ears twitched so quickly that he had to lean
them against the side of the Trap to keep them quiet.
"He will say it again," said Pooh, "and I shall go on
humming. And that will Upset him. Because when you say 'Ho-ho!'
twice, in a gloating sort of way, and the other person only
hums, you suddenly find, just as you begin to say it the third
time that --that--well, you find----"
"What?"
"That it isn't," said Pooh.
"Isn't what?"
Pooh knew what he meant, but, being a Bear of Very
Little Brain, couldn't think of the words.
"Well, it just isn't," he said again.
"You mean it isn't ho-ho-ish any more?" said Piglet
hopefully.
Pooh looked at him admiringly and said that that was
what he meant--if you went on humming all the time, because you
couldn't go on saying "Ho-ho!" for ever.
"But he'll say something else," said Piglet.
"That's just it. He'll say? What's all this?" And then
I shall say--and this is a very good idea, Piglet, which I've