Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne Read Free Book Online

is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. Would you write ‘A Happy Birthday’ on it for me?”
    “It’s a nice pot,” said Owl, looking at it all round.
    “Couldn’t I give it too? From both of us?”
    “No,” said Pooh. “That would not be a good plan. Now I’ll just wash it first, and then you can write on it.”
    Well, he washed the pot out, and dried it, while Owl licked the end of his pencil, and wondered how to spell “birthday.”

    “Can you read, Pooh?” he asked, a little anxiously. “There’s a notice about knocking and ringing outside my door, which Christopher Robin wrote. Could you read it?”
    “Christopher Robin told me what it said, and then I could.”
    “Well, I’ll tell you what this says, and then you’ll be able to.”
    So Owl wrote…and this is what he wrote:
     
    HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
     
    Pooh looked on admiringly.
    “I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday,’” said Owl carelessly.
    “It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
    “Well, actually , of course, I’m saying ‘A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.’ Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.”
    “Oh, I see,” said Pooh.
    While all this was happening, Piglet had gone back to his own house to get Eeyore’s balloon. He held it very tightly against himself, so that it shouldn’t blow away, and he ran as fast as he could so as to get to Eeyore before Pooh did; for he thought that he would like to be the first one to give a present, just as if he had thought of it without being told by anybody. And running along, and thinking how pleased Eeyore would be, he didn’t look where he was going…and suddenly he put his foot in a rabbit hole, and fell down flat on his face.
    BANG!!!???***!!!

    Piglet lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the Forest part of it had; and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now alone in the moon or somewhere, and would never see Christopher Robin or Pooh or Eeyore again. And then he thought, “Well, even if I’m in the moon, I needn’t be face downwards all the time,” so he got cautiously up and looked about him.
    He was still in the Forest!
    “Well, that’s funny,” he thought. “I wonder what that bang was. I couldn’t have made such a noise just falling down. And where’s my balloon? And what’s that small piece of damp rag doing?”
    It was the balloon!
    “Oh, dear!” said Piglet. “Oh, dear, oh, dearie, dearie, dear! Well, it’s too late now. I can’t go back, and I haven’t another balloon, and perhaps Eeyore doesn’t like balloons so very much.”
    So he trotted on, rather sadly now, and down he came to the side of the stream where Eeyore was, and called out to him.
    “Good morning, Eeyore,” shouted Piglet.
    “Good morning, Little Piglet,” said Eeyore. “If it is a good morning,” he said. “Which I doubt,” said he. “Not that it matters,” he said.
    “Many happy returns of the day,” said Piglet, having now got closer.
    Eeyore stopped looking at himself in the stream, and turned to stare at Piglet.
    “Just say that again,” he said.
    “Many hap—”
    “Wait a moment.”
    Balancing on three legs, he began to bring his fourth leg very cautiously up to his ear. “I did this yesterday,” he explained, as he fell down for the third time. “It’s quite easy. It’s so as I can hear better…. There, that’s done it! Now then, what were you saying?” He pushed his ear forward with his hoof.

    “Many happy returns of the day,” said Piglet again.
    “Meaning me?”
    “Of course, Eeyore.”
    “My birthday?”
    “Yes.”
    “Me having a real birthday?”
    “Yes, Eeyore, and I’ve brought you a present.”
    Eeyore took down his right hoof from his right ear, turned round, and with great difficulty put up his left