Alan Alexander Miln. The house at Pooh Corner -
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him. Pooh could get his chin on to the bottom rail he if 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 bottom 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
About a little fir-tree.
Owl says it's his tree,
And Kanga says it's her tree.
"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