I begin, or perhaps I should say, before I end, I have a piece of Poetry to read to you. Hitherto—hitherto—a long word meaning—well, you’ll see what it means directly—hitherto, as I was saying, all the Poetry in the Forest has been written by Pooh, a Bear with a Pleasing Manner but a Positively Startling Lack of Brain. The Poem which I am now about to read to you was written by Eeyore, or Myself, in a Quiet Moment. If somebody will take Roo’s bull’s-eye away from him, and wake up Owl, we shall all be able to enjoy it. I call it— Poem .”
This was it.
Christopher Robin is going. At least I think he is. Where? Nobody knows. But he is going— I mean he goes (To rhyme with “knows”) Do we care? (To rhyme with “where”) We do Very much. (I haven’t got a rhyme for that “is” in the second line yet. Bother.) (Now I haven’t got a rhyme for bother. Bother.) Those two bothers will have to rhyme with each other. Buther. The fact is this is more difficult than I thought, I ought— (Very good indeed) I ought To begin again, But it is easier To stop. Christopher Robin, good-bye, I (Good) I And all your friends Sends— I mean all your friend Send— (Very awkward this, it keeps going wrong) Well, anyhow, we send Our love End.
“If anybody wants to clap,” said Eeyore when he had read this, “now is the time to do it.”
They all clapped.
“Thank you,” said Eeyore. “Unexpected and gratifying, if a little lacking in Smack.”
“It’s much better than mine,” said Pooh admiringly, and he really thought it was.
“Well,” explained Eeyore modestly, “it was meant to be.”
“The rissolution,” said Rabbit, “is that we all sign it, and take it to Christopher Robin.”
So it was signed Pooh, Piglet, Wol, Eor, Rabbit, Kanga, Blot, Smudge , and they all went off to Christopher Robin’s house with it.
“Hallo, everybody,” said Christopher Robin—“Hallo, Pooh.”
They all said “Hallo,” and felt awkward and unhappy suddenly, because it was a sort of goodbye they were saying, and they didn’t want to think about it. So they stood around, and waited for somebody else to speak, and they nudged each other, and said “Go on,” and gradually Eeyore was nudged to the front, and the others crowded behind him.