Alan Alexander Miln. The house at Pooh Corner -
74 >
POOH had wandered into the Hundred Acre Wood, and was
standing in front of what had once been Owl's House. It didn't
look at all like a house now; it looked like a tree which had
been blown down; and as soon as a house looks like that, it is
time you tried to find another one. Pooh had had a Mysterious
Missage underneath his front door that morning, saying, "I AM
SCERCHING FOR A NEW HOUSE FOR OWL SO HAD YOU RABBIT," and while
he was wondering what it meant, Rabbit had come in and read it
for him.
"I'm leaving one for all the others," said Rabbit, "and
telling them what it means, and they'll all search too. I'm in
a hurry, good-bye." And he had run off.
Pooh followed slowly. He had something better to do
than to find a new house for Owl; he had to make up a Pooh song
about the old one. Because he had promised Piglet days and days
ago that he would, and whenever he and Piglet had met since,
Piglet didn't actually say anything, but you knew at once why
he didn't; and if anybody mentioned Hums or Trees or String or
Storms-in-the-Night, Piglet's nose went all pink at the tip,
and he talked about something quite different in a hurried sort
of way.
"But it isn't Easy," said Pooh to himself, as he looked
at what had once been Owl's House. "Because Poetry and Hums
aren't things which you get, they're things which get you. And
all you can do is to go where they can find you."
He waited hopefully . . .
"Well," said Pooh after a long wait, "I shall begin
'Here lies a tree' because it does, and then I'll see what
happens."
This is what happened:
Here lies a tree which Owl (a bird)
Was fond of when it stood on end,
And Owl was talking to a friend