Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were going for a walk one afternoon in late summer when Piglet gave a sudden squeak and said, “What is that over there? It looks like a huge bird flapping its wings. Do you think it’s dangerous?”

Pooh Bear looked and sure enough there was something flapping on a branch of one of the trees in the Hundred Acre Woods. Bravely he took a few small steps closer and then took several longer steps back as the bird, or whatever it was, took off again.

Piglet gave a small laugh and said, “It’s all right. It’s not a bird at all. It looks like one of Kanga’s tea towels. I wonder what it’s doing out here.”

Pooh, because he didn’t want to look as if he’d tried to run away from a tea towel, said, “I’m sure it’s not supposed to be here. And there’s no-one else around, so it’s up to us to capture it. We shall be brave explorers after the very rare flying tea towel.” And he set off at a trot after it.

Piglet was going to say that they could hardly be explorers within the Hundred Acre Woods since they lived there, but Pooh was already halfway down the path, so he didn’t bother.

Every time they drew near to the tea towel the wind blew again and it would flap gaily away with Pooh and Piglet running behind.

“You know (gasp) Pooh (gasp) I really don’t (gasp) think I can keep (gasp) going much (gasp) longer,” Piglet wheezed.

Fortunately for both Piglet and Pooh (who was also feeling breathless but didn’t have enough breath to say so) the tea towel settled in the middle of Eeyore’s thistle patch.

“You can’t leave that there,” Eeyore grumbled.

“We aren’t going to,” Pooh replied. “Could you give it back to us?”

“Is it yours?”

“No, it’s Kanga’s tea towel.”

“Then why should I give it back to you?” Eeyore looked at them suspiciously.

“We’re going to give it back to Kanga,” Pooh said.

“And you don’t want it covering your thistles,” Piglet added.

“Oh very well!” Eeyore pulled the tea towel off his thistles and gave it to Pooh. “Don’t lose it again!”

Pooh was about to explain that they couldn’t lose it again as they hadn’t lost it once, but Piglet nudged him and together they walked to Kanga’s house, holding very firmly onto the tea towel in case it should try to escape.

After Kanga had thanked them and invited them in for a little something, Pooh and Piglet walked back home together, and Pooh entertained Piglet with his new pome.

Piglet and Pooh went walking
All on a summer day
But very soon they were stalking
Kanga’s tea towel which had flown away

It came to rest on some thistles
Which wasn’t the best place to rest
‘Cos it gave Eeyore the bristles
And there they ended their quest