‘Oh, help!’ said Pooh. ‘I’d better go back.’

‘Oh, bother!’ said Pooh. ‘I shall have to go on.’

‘I can’t do either!’ said Pooh. ‘Oh, help and bother!’

Now, by this time Rabbit wanted to go for a walk too, and finding the front door full, he went out by the back door, and came round to Pooh, and looked at him.

‘Hallo, are you stuck?’ he asked.

‘N-no,’ said Pooh carelessly. ‘Just resting and thinking and humming to myself.’

‘Here, give us a paw.’

Pooh Bear stretched out a paw, and Rabbit pulled and pulled and pulled. …

‘Ow!’ cried Pooh. ‘You’re hurting!’

‘The fact is,’ said Rabbit, ‘you’re stuck.’

‘It all comes,’ said Pooh crossly, ‘of not having front doors big enough.’

‘It all comes,’ said Rabbit sternly, ‘of eating too much. I thought at the time,’ said Rabbit, ‘only I didn’t like to say anything,’ said Rabbit, ‘that one of us was eating too much,’ said Rabbit, ‘and I knew it wasn’t me,’ he said. ‘Well, well, I shall go and fetch Christopher Robin.’

Christopher Robin lived at the other end of the Forest, and when he came back with Rabbit, and saw the front half of Pooh, he said, ‘Silly old Bear,’ in such a loving voice that everybody felt quite hopeful again.

‘I was just beginning to think,’ said Bear, sniffing slightly, ‘that Rabbit might never be able to use his front door again. And I should hate that,’ he said.

‘So should I,’ said Rabbit.

‘Use his front door again?’ said Christopher Robin. ‘Of course he’ll use his front door again.’

‘Good,’ said Rabbit.

‘If we can’t pull you out, Pooh, we might push you back.’

Rabbit scratched his whiskers thoughtfully, and pointed out that, when once Pooh was pushed back, he was back, and of course nobody was more glad to see Pooh than he was, still there it was, some lived in trees and some lived underground, and—