on the rim and clutching the chain, went with it. The circle of light at the top of the shaft grew larger and lighter, and there were all the faces of his friends smiling down. Soon he could feel the sun on his face and see good old Eeyore turning the winch. He could hear the cheers and hoorays ringing out, and they were all for him, for Piglet.
He said in his proudest voice to all his friends: “It was nothing,” but in his heart he knew that it was not nothing but Something Very Big Indeed.
For the next few days, while the Friends and Relations dug a ditch running downhill from the well to Eeyore’s Gloomy Place, enough water was collected to run down the ditch and fill Eeyore’s tin trunk to the brim. There Lottie made her home, which she called Fortitude Hall.
A new game became popular in the Forest. It was called Doing the Ditch, and, when the rains came, which in due course they did, as they always will, the nimbler animals would run up to Galleon’s Lap and throw themselves into the ditch and be washed all the way down the hill to Eeyore’s Place. Lottie was the quickest at it because her skin was the sleekest, and she would add little twists and turns along the way.
“Oh, la la!” she would cry as she landed in a heap at the bottom. And then she would play a twiddly bit on her mouth organ because she was having such fun.
Late one evening, a few days after this big adventure, when Piglet was thinking of going to bed, and thinking how nice it would be if he were already in bed, and what a bore it was that he wasn’t already in bed, and how he liked his yellow pajamas much better than his green ones, there was a knock on the door. It was Pooh.
“Sorry to come home so late, Piglet, but it takes time, you know.”
“What does, Pooh?”
“Hums does. You think one is coming and it really wants to come only it suddenly decides that it won’t come until later, and maybe not even then. Like sneezing. And then, Piglet, it comes all of a sudden and you have to be ready for it with a piece of paper.”
“The sneeze?”
“The hum.”
“Oh, Pooh!” cried Piglet. “Is it a very long one?”
“Longer than most and almost as long as some,” said Pooh.
Then Piglet got into his best listening position, which he did by burrowing down in the cushion that lay on the chair with the lilac upholstery. He felt himself getting rather red in the face, especially when Pooh cleared his throat and began.
Oh, it wouldn’t rain and it wouldn’t snow
And the sun shone all day long—ho!
At this point, Pooh broke off.
“You must join in with the ‘ho’s’ when you get to know when they are coming, Piglet,” he said.
“I will, Pooh. Ho! Is that right?”
“It’s just right,” said Pooh, and he went on:
Oh, it wouldn’t rain and it wouldn’t snow
And the sun shone all day long—ho!
And there wasn’t a cloud in the whole of the sky
And the river ran wet until it ran dry
And all of the animals standing by
Cried ho, ho, ho!
“Ho!” said Piglet, and smiled happily.
Oh, it wouldn’t rain and it wouldn’t snow
And the sun shone all day long—ho!
Then out of the river there came a—what?
A thing called—what was it called?—an ott
Whose name was Lottie, unless it was not
With a ho, ho, diddle-dum, ho!
“Ho!” said Piglet, but this time he sounded a little worried.
Oh, it didn’t rain and it wouldn’t snow
And the sun shone all day long—ho!
Then Eeyore remembered there once was a well
But where it had been he could no longer tell
But Lottie could smell it—a watery smell,
With a diddle-dum, diddle-dum, ho!
“Ho,”said Piglet in arather quiet voice.
Oh, it hasn’t rained and it hasn’t snowed
And the sun shines all day long—ho!
But there’s water now in our friendly wood,
Which when it is hot feels extremely good,
And if you don’t join in this song you should!
With a ho, ho, diddle-dum, ho,
With a ho, ho, ho, ho...
“Ho,” whispered Piglet in the tiniest voice yet.
“What’s wrong, Piglet?” asked Pooh anxiously. “Don’t you like my new hum?”
“Yes, Pooh,” said Piglet, “I do rather like it. And all the ho, ho, hos and everything. But...but...”
“Anyway, Piglet, I must go to bed now that you’ve heard the hum, and I was so pleased that you were the first to hear it. Tomorrow we’ll go and hum it to the others,”