Winnie the Pooh

Once upon a time, in a sunny forest land called the *Hundred Acre Wood“>*Hundred Acre Wood**, where the trees were tall, and the paths were small and winding as they ran between the trees, and nearly every day was a Good-Day-for-a-Padding…

There was a little bear who had a Very Little Brain, but a Very Great Love of Honey.

His name was **Winnie-the-Pooh**.

He was, according to virtually every account, the happiest bear there has ever been.

—

Winnie the Pooh Bear lived in a cozy house beneath the roots of a big old oak tree. Above his door hung a sign that said **“Mr. Sanders.”** That was not Pooh’s name: that was just the name that had been on the sign when he moved into the house, which he had intended to change but never gotten around to doing. Inside the house there were chairs to sit on near a fireplace to keep Pooh warm and… well, most importantly, there was a cupboard that Pooh visited each morning with hopeful anticipation.

Today was no exception.

He went to the cupboard. He looked inside. It was bare.

“Somebody’s been eating my honey,” he said sadly.

Pooh sat down on his chair and puzzled over his problem. He puzzled long and hard, which for  Winnie the Pooh usually involved sitting very quietly with his paw over his forehead and thinking, thinking…

**“Hmmmmm…”** he muttered.

Suddenly, he had a brainwave.

Winnie the Pooh  would pay his friends a visit. One of them might have some honey. And if not, it was still no trouble at all to visit his friends.

He walked down the path in the warm morning sunshine, humming to himself a little tune he had made up. It was about honey and bees and how very satisfying it was to have a pot filled with honey on a sunny day.

His first visit was to Piglet’s house. It was a very small house for a very small animal. It was built neatly inside a large beech tree and had on it, an old sign that said “Trespassers W” which Piglet thought was his grandfather’s name but no-one was quite sure.

Piglet opened the door and his face lit up with the sort of smile that small and timid creatures make when someone they love comes unexpectedly to their house.

“Pooh!” he said. “Come in, come in.”

Winnie the Pooh came in. Piglet’s house was warm and cosy and although there wasn’t any honey, there was good friendship and a small fire and that was nearly as nice.
“What shall we do today?”** Piglet asked as he sat down in his chair, folding his hands in his lap.

**“I thought,” Winnie the Pooh began thoughtfully. **“That we might go see Eeyore.”**

Piglet nodded solemnly. Visiting Eeyore was always a necessity.

—

They discovered **Eeyore** sitting all by himself in one corner of the meadow gazing at the ground with his usual gloomy expression hanging about his ears.

His house — an architectural triumph consisting of sticks found lying in one corner — was on the ground once more. This was a semi-regular occurrence and one which Eeyore had long since learned to accept as the inevitable downfall of a donkey such as himself.

**“Hello Eeyore,”** said Pooh enthusiastically.

**“Oh, it’s you.”** Eeyore grunted. Eeyore wasn’t often cheerful, so this was really rather a friendly greeting. **“I suppose you saw my house fell down again.”**

**“We saw,”** said Piglet politely. **“Do you want us to help you build it back up?”**

Eeyore stared at them both for a few seconds with his mournful eyes.
**said Pooh. **”Not that it’ll stay up. Course not. It never does. But putty it makes no difference. If it makes you feel better…”**

So they spent the next hour rebuilding Eeyore’s house, stick by careful stick.Winnie the Pooh  setting them in place with concentration while Piglet offered them over one at a time and Eeyore looked on with a glum expression that was struggling very hard not to smile and failing rather nicely.

When it was finished, Eeyore walked all the way around it once while inspecting it closely.

**”Hmm,”** Eeyore said at last. **”Better than usual. Though of course usual isn’t very good at all. “**

Which was high praise coming from Eeyore indeed.

—

The two walked slowly home through the Hundred Acre Wood in the warm light of late afternoon, shadows long across the path from the trees.

Winnie the Pooh  Piglet said eventually.

**”Yes Piglet? “**

**”Do you know what’s the best thing in the world?
Winnie the Pooh  considered this deeply. He always considered deeply when Piglet asked him a question. He considered honey. Warm and golden and sweet. He considered his armchair by the fire.

He considered the Hundred Acre Wood in the morning light as it filtered through the trees just so.

But then he looked down at Piglet walking happily beside him. Small and pink and all perfect goodness. And Winnie the Pooh  considered Eeyore’s deeply grateful face as his house had been unveiled and tried not to cry.

**“I think,”** Pooh said at last, **“that the best thing in the world is a home. And a friend to share it with.”**

Piglet considered this for a moment, nodded his great flowered head up and down and slipped his tiny hand into Pooh’s.

They didn’t speak again for a while.

They didn’t need to.

—

Winnie the Pooh  sat in his armchair by his fire that night with his cupboard still bare and his stomach not quite as full as he would have liked it to be.

But it had been a good day. All of his friends were safe and happy. Eeyore now had a home. Piglet had given him his hand to hold on the way home.

Winnie the Pooh  hummed to himself quietly in the glow of the firelight, his small honey hum.

**“It is enough,”** Pooh sighed happily, **“It is more than enough.”**

It truly was.

—

*The End. *

*The very best things in life aren’t things at all. *
*They’re the ones sharing your adventures along the way. *

*Goodnight, little one. * 🌙

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