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One fine winter's day when Piglet was brushing away the snow in front of his house, he happened to look up, and there was Winnie-the-Pooh. Pooh was walking round and round in a circle, thinking of something else, and when Piglet called to him, he just went on walking.
"Hallo!" said Piglet, "what are you doing?"
"Hunting," said
Pooh.
"Hunting what?"
"Tracking something," said Winnie-the-Pooh very
mysteriously.
"Tracking what?" said Piglet, coming closer "That's just
what I ask myself. I ask myself, What?"
"What do you think you'll
answer?"
"I shall have to wait until I catch up with it," said
Winnie-the-Pooh. "Now, look there." He pointed to the ground in front of him.
"What do you see there?"
"Tracks," said Piglet. "Paw-marks." He gave a little
squeak of excitement. "Oh, Pooh! Do you think it's a--a--a Woozle?"
"It may
be," said Pooh. "Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. You never can tell
with paw-marks." With these few words he went on tracking, and Piglet, after
watching him for a minute or two, ran after him. Winnie-the-Pooh had come to
a sudden stop, and was bending over the tracks in a puzzled sort of
way.
"What's the matter?" asked Piglet.
"It's a very funny thing," said
Bear, "but there seem to be two animals now. This--whatever-it-was--has
been
joined by another--whatever-it-is-- and the two of them are now proceeding in
company. Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to
be Hostile Animals?"
Piglet scratched his ear in a nice sort of way, and
said that he had nothing to do until Friday, and would be delighted to come,
in case it really was a Woozle.
"You mean, in case it really is two Woozles,"
said Winnie-the-Pooh, and Piglet said that anyhow he had nothing to do
until Friday. So off they went together. There was a small spinney of larch
trees just here, and it seemed as if the two Woozles, if that is what they
were, had been going round this spinney; so round this spinney went Pooh and
Piglet after them; Piglet passing the time by telling Pooh what his
Grandfather Trespassers W had done to Remove Stiffness after Tracking, and
how his Grandfather Trespassers W had suffered in his later years from Shortness
of Breath, and other matters of interest, and Pooh wondering what a
Grandfather was like, and if perhaps this was Two Grandfathers they were
after now, and, if so, whether he would be allowed to take one home and keep it,
and what Christopher Robin would say. And still the tracks went on in front
of them.... Suddenly Winnie-the-Pooh stopped, and pointed excitedly in front
of him. "Look!"
"What?" said Piglet, with a jump.
And then, to show that he hadn't been frightened, he jumped up and down
once or twice more in an exercising sort of way.
"The tracks!" said Pooh. "A
third animal has joined the other two!"
"Pooh!" cried Piglet "Do you think it
is another Woozle?"
"No," said Pooh, "because it makes different marks. It
is either Two Woozles and one, as it might be, Wizzle, or Two, as it might
be, Wizzles and one, if so it is, Woozle. Let us continue to follow
them."
So they went on, feeling just a little anxious now, in case the
three animals in front of them were of Hostile Intent. And Piglet wished very
much that his Grandfather T. W. were there, instead of elsewhere, and Pooh
thought how nice it would be if they met Christopher Robin suddenly but quite
accidentally, and only because he liked Christopher Robin so
much.
And then, all of a sudden, Winnie-the-Pooh stopped again, and
licked the tip of his nose in a cooling manner, for he was feeling more hot
and anxious than ever in his life before. There were four animals in front
of them!
"Do you see, Piglet? Look at their tracks! Three, as it were,
Woozles, and one, as it was, Wizzle. Another Woozle has joined them!"
And
so it seemed to be. There were the tracks; crossing over each other here,
getting muddled up with each other there; but, quite plainly every now and
then, the tracks of four sets of paws.
"I think," said Piglet, when he had
licked the tip of his nose too, and found that it brought very little
comfort, "I think that I have just remembered something. I have just
remembered something that I forgot to do yesterday and sha'n't be able to do
to-morrow. So I suppose I really ought to go back and do it now."
"We'll do
it this afternoon, and I'll come with you," said Pooh.
"It isn't the sort of
thing you can do in the afternoon," said Piglet quickly. "It's a very particular
morning thing, that has to be done in the morning, and, if possible, between
the hours of What would you say the time was?"
"About twelve," said
Winnie-the-Pooh, looking at the sun.
"Between, as I was saying, the hours of
twelve and twelve five. So, really, dear old Pooh, if you'll excuse me--
What's that."
Pooh looked up at the sky, and then, as he heard the whistle
again, he looked up into the branches of a big oak-tree, and then he saw a
friend of his.
"It's Christopher Robin," he
said.
"Ah, then you'll be all right," said Piglet. "You'll be quite safe
with him. Good-bye," and he trotted off home as quickly as he could, very
glad to be Out of All Danger again.
Christopher Robin came slowly down his
tree. "Silly old Bear," he said, "what were you doing? First you went
round the spinney twice by yourself, and then Piglet ran after you and you
went round again together, and then you were just going round a fourth
time"
"Wait a moment," said Winnie-the-Pooh, holding up his paw. He sat
down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think. Then he fitted
his paw into one of the Tracks . . . and then he scratched his nose twice,
and stood up.
"Yes," said Winnie-the-Pooh.
"I see now," said
Winnie-the-Pooh.
"I have been Foolish and Deluded," said he, "and I am a Bear
of No Brain at All."
"You're the Best Bear in All the World," said
Christopher Robin soothingly.
"Am I?" said Pooh hopefully. And then he
brightened up suddenly. "Anyhow," he said, "it is nearly Luncheon
Time." So he went home for it.
All the stories written and copyrighted by A.A. Milne
