"There may be something in what you say, Rabbit," he said at last.  " I have been neglecting you.  I must move about more.  I must come and go."  "That's right, Eeyore.  Drop in on any of us at any time, when you feel like it."  "Thank you, Rabbit.  And if anyone says in a Loud Voice 'Bother, it's Eeyore,' I can drop out again."
	"What did you say it was?" he asked. "Tigger." "Ah!" said Eeyore. "He's just come," explained Piglet. "Ah! said Eeyore again. He thought for a long time and then said:  "When is he going?"
	"You seem so sad, Eeyore." "Sad?  Why should I be sad?  It's my birthday.  The happiest day of the year." "Your birthday?" said Pooh in great surprise. "Of course it is.  Can't you see?  Look at all the presents I've had." He waved a foot from side to side. "Look at the birthday cake.  Candles and pink sugar." Pooh looked - first to the right and then to the left. "Presents?" said Pooh.  "Birthday cake?" said Pooh.  "Where?" "Can't you see them?" "No," said Pooh. "Neither can I," said Eeyore.  "Joke," he explained.  "Ha Ha"
	Eeyore was very glad to be able to stop thinking for a little, in order to say "How do you do" in a gloomy manner to Pooh.  "And how are you?" said Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side.  "Not very how," he said. "I don't seem to felt at all how for a long time."
	"And I said to myself: The others will be sorry if I'm getting myself all cold. They haven't got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and They don't Think, but if it goes on snowing for another six weeks or so, one of them will begin to say to himself: `Eeyore can't be so very much too Hot about three o' clock in the morning.' And then it will Get About. And they'll be Sorry."
	"People come and go in this Forest, and they say, 'It's only Eeyore, so it doesn't count.'  They walk to and fro saying 'Ha Ha!'.  But do they know anything about A?  They don't.  It's just three sticks to them.  But to the Educated - mark this, little Piglet - to the Educated, not meaning Poohs and Piglets, it's a great and glorious A."
	"A little patch I was keeping for my birthday," he said; "but after all, what are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow. Help yourself, Tigger."
	"It's bad enough, "said Eeyore, almost breaking down, "being miserable myself, what with no presents and no cake and no candles, but if everybody else is going to be miserable too ..."
	"One can't complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday."
	"Ha-ha," said Eeyore bitterly. "Merriment and what-not. Don't apologize. It's just what would happen."
	"Clever!" said Eeyore scornfully, putting a foot heavily on his three sticks. "Education!" said Eeyore bitterly, jumping on his six sticks. "What is Learning?" asked Eeyore as he kicked his twelve sticks in the air. "A thing Rabbit knows! Ha!"
	"Good morning, Eeyore," said Pooh.  "Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning, which I doubt," said he.  "Why, what's the matter?"  "Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing.  We can't all, and some of us don't.  That's all there is to it."  "Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.  "Gaiety. Song-and-dance.  Here we go round the mulberry bush."
	"Nobody tells me. Nobody keeps me Informed. I make it seventeen days come Friday since anybody spoke to me."  "It certainly isn't seventeen days - "  "Come Friday," explained Eeyore.  "And today's Saturday," said Rabbit.
	"Don't bustle me," said Eeyore, getting up slowly.  " Don't now-then me."
	"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.  "So it is."  "And freezing."  "Is it?"  "Yes," said Eeyore.  "However," he said, brightening a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."
	"But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an Accident? I mean - "  "I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river, I didn't stop to say to myself, `Is  this a Hearty Joke or the Merest Accident?'. I just floated to the surface and said to myself, `it's wet'. If you know what I mean.
	"Thank you, Pooh," answered Eeyore. "You're a real friend," said he. "Not Like Some," he said.
	"It's not very pleasant in my corner of the world at three o'clock in the morning. But for people who like cold, wet, ugly bits it is something rather special."
	And as Piglet looked sorrowfully round, Eeyore picked up the balloon with his teeth, and placed it carefully in the pot; picked it out and put it on the ground; and then picked it up again and put it carefully back......... But Eeyore wasn't listening. He was taking the balloon out, and putting it back, as happy as could be.

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	This page last updated December 2000  (c) C. Johns
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