lly up into the sky, and stayed there - level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from it.
Hooray! you shouted.
Is not 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? Raquo;
Not very much.
Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, you never can tell with bees. Raquo; 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 could not quite reach the honey.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! Raquo;
Perhaps they think that you're after their honey?
It may be that. You never can tell with bees. Raquo; was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.
Christopher Robin!
Yes?
Have you an umbrella in your house?
I think so.
I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and down with it, and look up at me every now and then, and say Tut-tut, it looks like rain. I think, if you did that, it would help the deception which we are practising on these bees. Raquo ;, you laughed to yourself, Silly old Bear! Raquo; but you did not say it aloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for your umbrella.
Oh, there you are! called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon as you got back to the tree. I was beginning to get anxious. I have discovered that the bees are now definitely Suspicious. Raquo;
Shall I put my umbrella up? you said.
Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee to deceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is the Queen Bee from down there? Raquo;
No.
A pity. Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying, Tut-tut, it looks like rain, I shall do what I can by singing a little Cloud Song, such as a cloud might sing ... Go! Raquo ;, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain, Winnie-the-Pooh sang this song: sweet to be a Cloudin the Blue! little cloudsings aloud.
How sweet to be a Cloudin the Blue! makes him very proudbe a little cloud.bees were still buzzing as suspiciously as ever. Some of them, indeed, left their nests and flew all round the cloud as it began the second verse of this song, and one bee sat down on the nose of the cloud for a moment, and then got up again.
Christopher - ow!- Robin, called out the cloud.
Yes?
I have just been thinking, and I have come to a very important decision. These are the wrong sort of bees. Raquo;
Are they?
Quite the wrong sort. So I should think they would make the wrong sort of honey, should not you? Raquo;
Would they?
Yes. So I think I shall come down. Raquo;
How? asked you.the-Pooh hadn t thought about this. If he let go of the string, he would fall -bump - and he didn t like the idea of ??that. So he thought for a long time, and then he said:
Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with your gun. Have you got your gun? Raquo;
Of course I have, you said. But if I do that, it will spoil the balloon, you said. But if you do not said Pooh, I shall have to let go, and that would spoil me." he put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very carefully at the balloon, and fired.
Ow! said Pooh.
Did I miss? you asked.
You did not exactly miss, said Pooh, but you missed the balloon.
I'm so sorry, you said, and you fired again, and this time you hit the balloon and the air came slowly out, and Winnie-the-Pooh floated down to the ground.his arms were so stiff from holding on to the string of the balloon all that time that they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think - but I am...
