a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and
not notice you, and, if you have a blue balloon, they might think you
were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is:
Which is most likely?"
"Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?" you asked.
"They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never can
tell with bees." He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to look
like a small black cloud. That will deceive them."


"Then you had better have the blue balloon," you said; and so it was
decided.


Well, you both went out with the blue balloon, and you took your gun
with you, just in case, as you always did, and Winnie-the-Pooh went to a
very muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he was
black all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big,
and you and Pooh were both holding on to the string, you let go
suddenly, and Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayed
there—level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from
it.


"Hooray!" you shouted.
"Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I look
like?"
"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.
"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "—not like a small black cloud in a blue
sky?"
"Not very much."
"Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, you
never can tell with bees."
There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree, so there he stayed. He
could see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't quite
reach the honey.
After a little while he called down to you.
"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.
"Hallo!"
"I think the bees suspect something!"
"What sort of thing?"
"I don't know. But something tells me that they're suspicious!"


"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey."
"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."
There was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.
"Christopher Robin!"
"Yes?"