Page:The House at Pooh Corner (1961).pdf/114

 “I’ll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak-tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he’ll always get the answer.”

“But, Eeyore,” said Pooh in distress, “what can we—I mean, how shall we—do you think if we”

“Yes,” said Eeyore. “One of those would be just the thing. Thank you, Pooh.”

“He’s going round and round,” said Roo, much impressed.

“And why not?” said Eeyore coldly.

“I can swim too,” said Roo proudly.

“Not round and round,” said Eeyore. “It’s much more difficult. I didn’t want to come swimming at all today,” he went on, revolving slowly. “But if, when in, I decide to practise a slight circular movement from right to left—or perhaps I should say,” he added, as he got into another eddy, “from left to right, just as it happens to occur to me, it is nobody’s business but my own.”

There was a moment’s silence while everybody thought.

“I’ve got a sort of idea,” said Pooh at last, “but I don’t suppose it’s a very good one.”

“I don’t suppose it is either,” said Eeyore.

“Go on, Pooh,” said Rabbit. “Let’s have it.”

“Well, if we all threw stones and things into the