Alan Alexander Miln. The house at Pooh Corner -
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"Well?" said Rabbit.
"Yes," said Owl, looking Wise and Thoughtful.
"I see what you mean. Undoubtedly."
"Well?"
"Exactly," said Owl. "Precisely." And he added, after a
little thought, "If you had not come to me, I should have come
to you."
"Why?" asked Rabbit.
"For that very reason," said Owl, hoping that something
helpful would happen soon.
"Yesterday morning," said Rabbit solemnly, "I went to
see Christopher Robin. He was out. Pinned on his door was a
notice!"
"The same notice?"
"A different one. But the meaning was the same. It's
very odd."
"Amazing," said Owl, looking at the notice again, and
getting, just for a moment, a curious sort of feeling that
something had happened to Christopher Robin's back. "What did
you do?"
"Nothing."
"The best thing," said Owl wisely.
"Well?" said Rabbit again, as Owl knew he was going to.
"Exactly," said Owl.
For a little while he couldn't think of anything more;
and then, all of a sudden, he had an idea.
"Tell me, Rabbit," he said, "the exact words of the
first notice. This is very important. Everything depends on
this. The exact words of the first notice."
"It was just the same as that one really."
Owl looked at him, and wondered whether to push him off
the tree; but, feeling that he could always do it afterwards,
he tried once more to find out what they were talking about.
"The exact words, please" he said, as if Rabbit hadn't
spoken.
"It just said, 'Gone out. Backson.' Same as this, only
this says 'Bisy Backson' too."
Owl gave a great sigh of relief.
"Ah!" said Owl. "Now we know where we are."
"Yes, but where's Christopher Robin?" said Rabbit.