He nodded and went out, and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh—bump,
bump, bump—going up the stairs behind him.


CHAPTER II
IN WHICH POOH GOES VISITING AND GETS INTO A TIGHT PLACE


Edward Bear, known to his friends as Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for
short, was walking through the forest one day, humming proudly to
himself. He had made up a little hum that very morning, as he was doing
his Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
as he stretched up as high as he could go, and then Tra-la-la,
tra-la—oh, help!—la, as he tried to reach his toes. After breakfast
he had said it over and over to himself until he had learnt it off by
heart, and now he was humming it right through, properly. It went like
this:


Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la,
Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um.


Well, he was humming this hum to himself, and walking along gaily,
wondering what everybody else was doing, and what it felt like, being
somebody else, when suddenly he came to a sandy bank, and in the bank
was a large hole.
"Aha!" said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.) "If I know anything about
anything, that hole means Rabbit," he said, "and Rabbit means Company,"
he said, "and Company means Food and Listening-to-Me-Humming and such
like. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um."
So he bent down, put his head into the hole, and called out:
"Is anybody at home?"
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole, and then
silence.
"What I said was, 'Is anybody at home?'" called out Pooh very loudly.
"No!" said a voice; and then added, "You needn't shout so loud. I heard
you quite well the first time."
"Bother!" said Pooh. "Isn't there anybody here at all?"
"Nobody."
Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole, and thought for a little,
and he thought to himself, "There must be somebody there, because
somebody must have said 'Nobody.'" So he put his head back in the
hole, and said: