Alan Alexander Milne

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

“Aha!” means “We’ll tell you where Baby

Roo is, if you promise to go away from the Forest and never come back.” Now don’t talk while I think.’

Pooh went into a corner and tried saying ‘Aha!’ in that sort of voice. Sometimes it seemed to him that it did mean what Rabbit said, and sometimes it seemed to him that it didn’t. ‘I suppose it’s just practice,’ he thought. ‘I wonder if Kanga will have to practise too so as to understand it.’

‘There’s just one thing,’ said Piglet, fidgeting a bit. ‘I was talking to Christopher Robin, and he said that a Kanga was Generally Regarded as One of the Fiercer Animals. I am not frightened of Fierce Animals in the ordinary way, but it is well known that if One of the Fiercer Animals is Deprived of Its Young, it becomes as fierce as Two of the Fiercer Animals. In which case “Aha!” is perhaps a foolish thing to say.’

‘Piglet,’ said Rabbit, taking out a pencil, and licking the end of it, ‘you haven’t any pluck.’

‘It is hard to be brave,’ said Piglet, sniffing slightly, ‘when you’re only a Very Small Animal.’