Alan Alexander Miln. The house at Pooh Corner -
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"It's just Eeyore," said Piglet. "I thought your Idea
was a very good Idea."
Pooh began to feel a little more comfortable, because
when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of
Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very
Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into
the open and has other people looking at it. And, anyhow,
Eeyore was in the river, and now he wasn't, so he hadn't done
any harm.
"How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he
dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.
"I didn't," said Eeyore.
"But how--"
"I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.
"Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"
"Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side
of the river--thinking, if any of you know what that
means--when I received a loud BOUNCE."
"Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.
"Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.
"Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the
slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from
behind, you slip. What did you think I did?"
"But who did it?" asked Roo.
Eeyore didn't answer.
"I expect it was Tigger," said Piglet nervously.
"But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an
Accident? I mean--"
"I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of
the river I didn't stop to say to myself, 'Is this a Hearty
Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?' I just floated to the
surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.' If you know what I
mean."
"And where was Tigger?" asked Rabbit.
Before Eeyore could answer, there was a loud noise
behind them, and through the hedge came Tigger himself.