Pooh and Piglet were walking through the Hundred Acre Wood with Eeyore and Rabbit when they heard some sort of commotion up ahead. Rabbit heard it first, as usually happened with hearing things.
“I say,” said Rabbit, pricking up his long ears, “what’s that?”
“What’s what, Rabbit?” asked Pooh, who hadn’t heard anything. He had been daydreaming about a new hum that was telling him it wanted to be made up, and could Pooh please help.
“That noise,” said Rabbit, pointing ahead of them, “it sounds like someone running.”
“That’s what it is,” said Eeyore, “not that anyone cares, but there’s a Someone running around and around that bush.”
“I think that’s Someone New,” said Piglet. “Is it another bear, Pooh?”
Pooh shaded his eyes with his paw so as to have a better look. “I don’t think so, Piglet,” said Pooh after a bit. “That Someone has a long tail, which Bears don’t.”
Just to be sure, Pooh tried to turn around quickly enough to catch a glimpse of his tail, but after trying three times he decided that his tail — which was short and stumpy — was just as quick at hiding as the rest of him was at trying to peek. So he gave up. “Perhaps,” he murmured to himself, “I shall use my mirror when I get back home.”
Pooh had stopped walking in order to spin around quick enough to catch his tail by surprise, and the others had kept going. Pooh had to hurry to catch up, and by the time he did, everyone was standing near the bush watching the Someone run past, around the bush again and again.
“Excuse me,” said Rabbit, the next time the Someone passed by. The Someone stopped.
“Oh, hello there,” said the Someone. “Have you seen him?”
“Seen who?” asked Rabbit. “Er…that is, I don’t think so. Is it someone we would know?”
“Don’t know,” said the Someone. “Do you live around here?”
“We do,” said Rabbit. “This is the Hundred Acre Wood, and we all live in it.” Rabbit introduced Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and himself to the Someone, who turned out to be Monkey.
“It’s like this,” explained Monkey, when the how-do-you-dos were all finished. “I’m on my way to London, and on my trip I met a new friend going in the same direction. We were traveling together, and thought we would have a bit of a break here and play a game. At least I thought it was a game. I was chasing him around this bush, you see, just for a bit of sport.”
“Where did your friend go?” asked Pooh.
“That’s just it,” said Monkey, “I don’t know. I was chasing him around this bush — the game, you see, is that you chase, and if you make a catch then you turn around and they chase you back. It’s great fun. But I heard a loud…well, a pop, I suppose you’d have to call it — and since then I haven’t been able to catch my friend at all.”
“That,” said Eeyore, “is because nobody else is here. Which just goes to show you,” he added sadly.
Nobody in the little group had a chance to find out what it went to show them, because Monkey sighed heavily and said “Ah well, I shall have to continue on my own, I suppose. A pity; it was quite lovely to have a traveling companion.”
Monkey said goodbye and set off in a direction he said was toward London. Before he went very far, he turned and said “If you see my friend, please tell him I went this way, and if he hurries he can catch me up.”
“But who is your friend?” asked Rabbit.
“Oh, quite right,” said Monkey, “you wouldn’t know him, I guess. His name is Weasel. He’s a skinny sort of fellow, dark fur.” Then with a wave, Monkey was off to London.
“That about sums it up,” said Eeyore gloomily. “Monkey thought it was all in fun, but then pop and Weasel was gone. It just goes to show you,” he said again.
“Mmph?” said Pooh. He had meant to ask Eeyore what it went to show them, but his mouth was full of mulberries from the bush and he couldn’t talk for a few moments. He never got to ask Eeyore, because by the time he had finished his mulberries, Rabbit was talking again.
