then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the
Heffalump would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up,
and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way
down.... When it would be too late.
Piglet said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it
was a Cunning Trap.
Pooh was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Heffalump
was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which
had to be thought about, and it was this. Where should they dig the
Very Deep Pit?
Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump
was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.
"But then he would see us digging it," said Pooh.
"Not if he was looking at the sky."
"He would Suspect," said Pooh, "if he happened to look down." He thought
for a long time and then added sadly, "It isn't as easy as I thought. I
suppose that's why Heffalumps hardly ever get caught."
"That must be it," said Piglet.
They sighed and got up; and when they had taken a few gorse prickles out
of themselves they sat down again; and all the time Pooh was saying to
himself, "If only I could think of something!" For he felt sure that a
Very Clever Brain could catch a Heffalump if only he knew the right way
to go about it.
"Suppose," he said to Piglet, "you wanted to catch me, how would you
do it?"
"Well," said Piglet, "I should do it like this. I should make a Trap,
and I should put a Jar of Honey in the Trap, and you would smell it, and
you would go in after it, and——"
"And I would go in after it," said Pooh excitedly, "only very carefully
so as not to hurt myself, and I would get to the Jar of Honey, and I
should lick round the edges first of all, pretending that there wasn't
any more, you know, and then I should walk away and think about it a
little, and then I should come back and start licking in the middle of
the jar, and then——"
"Yes, well never mind about that. There you would be, and there I should