Title: In Which Owl Reads A Message, and Pooh Isn't Convinced
Fandom: Winnie-the-Pooh
Rating: G
Length: 400 words
Summary: Pooh Bear takes a message to Owl for him to read.

Winnie-the-Pooh was on his way to consult Owl.  He had found a notice he wanted reading, and since Christopher Robin was out, he was going to have to ask Owl to read it to him.  He hoped Owl wouldn’t use too many long words.

He climbed up Owl’s tree and knocked politely on the front door.

Owl opened it and said, “Good afternoon, Pooh Bear.  Won’t you come in?”

“Um, yes.”  Pooh thought that was the right answer.

“Tea and biscuits?”

“Oh, yes please.”  That was always the right answer.

Owl brought the tea and biscuits through.  “And what brings you to my humble abode on this glorious afternoon?” he asked.

Pooh thought, and then, hoping what Owl had really said was, “Why are you here?”, replied, “Can you read this to me?”

“Of course I can, and I will.  Just give me a couple of minutes.”  Owl accepted the piece of paper and looked at it intently.  “It begins ‘jig saw’”

“What’s that?”

“Well, you’ve heard of a jig?  No?”  Owl hopped up and down a bit.  “It’s a sort of a dance.  But since a dance can’t see it must be a dancer called Jig.  Now, we know that this Jig saw something.”

“But what?”

“That will be on the next line.”  Owl tried the word out on his tongue and finally settled on “Tra in.”

“What’s a Tra?”

“It’s the sound a trumpet makes.”

“Oh yes.”  Pooh nodded, “Toora, toora!”

“So Jig the dancer saw Tra, who must be a trumpeter, in.”

“Yes…”

“The last line.  That’s easy.  Bo at.”

“Bo at?”

“Yes, the third character, Bo has a hat, which Tra is wearing.”

“Oh!”

“I think they must be puppets.  Yes, definitely puppets.  So Jig has seen Tra wearing Bo’s hat.  Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No, thank you.  That’s all.”  Pooh took back the piece of paper and departed.  He really wasn’t convinced about what Owl had told him, but he wasn’t going to say so.

On the way back home, he met Christopher Robin and showed him the piece of paper. 

“I wondered where that had got to,” Christopher Robin said.  “It’s my letter to Father Christmas telling him which presents I’d like.”

“And what have you asked for?”

“A jigsaw, a train and a boat.”

“No puppets?”

“No puppets,” Christopher Robin agreed.

“I didn’t think there were,” said Pooh.