Alan Alexander Milne

. It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come.”

One day, when Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were all talking together, Christopher Robin finished the mouthful he was eating and said carelessly: ‘I saw a Heffalump to-day, Piglet.’

‘What was it doing?’ asked Piglet.

‘Just lumping along,’ said Christopher Robin. ‘I don’t think it saw me.’

‘I saw one once,’ said Piglet. ‘At least, I think I did,’ he said. ‘Only perhaps it wasn’t.’

‘So did I,’ said Pooh, wondering what a Heffalump was like.

‘You don’t often see them,’ said Christopher Robin carelessly.

‘Not now,’ said Piglet.

‘Not at this time of year,’ said Pooh.

Then they all talked about something else, until it was time for Pooh and Piglet to go home together. At first as they stumped along the path which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn’t say much to each other; but when they came to the stream, and had helped each other across the stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the heather, they began to talk in a friendly way about this and that, and Piglet said, ‘If you see what I mean, Pooh,’ and Pooh said, ‘It’s just what I think myself, Piglet,’ and Piglet said, ‘But, on the other hand, Pooh, we must remember,’ and Pooh said, ‘Quite true, Piglet, although I had forgotten it for the moment.’ And then, just as they came to the Six Pine Trees, Pooh looked round to see that nobody else was listening, and said in a very solemn voice:

‘Piglet, I have decided something.’

‘What have you decided, Pooh?’

‘I have decided to catch a Heffalump.’

Pooh nodded his head several times as he said this, and waited for Piglet to say ‘How?’ or ‘Pooh, you couldn’t!’ or something helpful of that sort, but Piglet said nothing. The fact was Piglet was wishing that he had thought about it first.

‘I shall do it,’ said Pooh, after waiting a little longer, ‘by means of a trap. And it must be a Cunning Trap, so you will have to help me, Piglet.’