Eyeore, Be Happy!
If Pooh had felt any happier, his stuffing would have popped. That's the sort of day it was in the Hundred-acre wood. Fluffy white clouds were keeping the sun company. Chirping birds were keeping the trees company. And Piglet was keeping Pooh company on the path to Poohsticks Bridge.

"A fine day for playing Poohsticks!" Pooh said, bending over to pick up a small branch. "A perfect day!" Piglet agreed, finding a stick for himself.

Holding their Poohsticks, the two friends hurried onto Poohsticks Bridge.

If you've never been to the Hundred-acre wood and played Poohstick, you probably don't know how to play the game. Poohsticks is easy. It was invented by Pooh, who isn't a very complicated bear.

When they played, Pooh and Piglet just dropped their stick into the river. Then they ran over to the other side of the bridge. If Pooh's stick floated out first, then Pooh won.

As they leaned over the side, the two friends saw a familiar orange-and-black-striped tail sticking out from under the bridge.

"That's Tigger's tail!" exclaimed Pooh. "Do you think he's lost it?" Piglet said in a worried voice. "No!" said the tail. "The rest of me is here, too!"

Pooh and Piglet leaned over a bit more, carful not to fall into the river. There was Tigger, sitting on the river bank below.

"Whatever are you doing there?" Pooh said. "Why aren't you having fun bouncing?" Bouncing was what Tigger liked to do best.

"Eeyore spoiled everything!" Tigger answered. "He said that nice weater like this is earthquake weather! He said the Hundred-acre wood would probably have an earthquake today! I'm staying under the bridge until it's over...and you'd better, too!"

Meanwhile, Christopher Robin was in the Hundred-acre wood, growing worried. He hadn't seen Pooh or Piglet all day, so he decided to start lookin for them. First he looked in Pooh's Heffaump trap. Sometimes Pooh or Piglet fell in the trap. They weren't there.

Then Christopher Robin went to Rabbit's house. Pooh and Piglet often went there for lunch, whether Rabbit invited them or not. But Rabbit said he adn't seen either of them all day.

Finally Christopher Robin found them sitting under Poohsticks Bridge. They had been sitting there a long time. When Pooh tod him what Eeyore had said about earthquake weather, Christopher Laughed.

"Silly bear!" he said. "There's no such thing as earthquake weather. Eeyore was just being gloomy again!"

"I could have been bouncing all day!" Tigger said grumpily."

"And Pooh and I could have played Poohsticks all day," Piglet said.

"Bother!" said Pooh who a missed his lunch because of Eeyore. Pooh led the way to the Gloomy Place where Eeyore lived. They found the little donkey nibbling at a patch of thistles near his gloomy little house.

"You said there was going to be a earthquake, Eeyore!" Tigger said. "And you spoiled our whole day!"

Eeyore could tell by the tone of his friends's voice that he was annoyed.

"Why do you always have to be so gloomy about everything?" asked Piglet.

"It's nicer to be happy than gloomy." said Pooh. "Perhaps it is, " Eeyore agreed. "But I don't know how to be happy. Nobody ever showed me."

"It's easy to be happy!" Tigger cried. "Just follow me." Tigger started bouncing off across Eeyore's Gloomy Place.

Eeyore ook a few practice bounces, hen bounced off behind Tigger. Feeling very happy, Tigger bounced higher and higher..

"Look out!" Christopher shouted, but it was too late. Tigger and Eeyore bounced right into a big, swampy mud puddle.

"I don't think bouncing makes me happy," said Eeyore as everyone helped pull the bouncers from the puddle.

"Then come with me," said Pooh. "I'll show you what makes me happy!"

Pooh took Eeyore and the others to his house. "Being happy means having a cupboard full of pots of honey from the Honey Tree." Pooh said as he opened the cupboard.

Christopher looked in one pot. "This pot is empty!" he said.

Tigger looked in another. "So is this one!" "Oh, bother!" said Pooh. "I forgot. My honey pots are all empty. I shall have to get some more."

Pooh's fiends went with him to the Honey Tree. Pooh explained how to get honey from the Honey Tree. "It's simply a matter of climbing up and taking the honey for the bees," he told Eeyore. "Try it."

He boosted Eeyore up to the first branch. "Now, just keep climbing until you see the place where the bees keep the honey," Pooh said.

Eeyore looked scared. Christopher said to him, "Don't worry. If you slip, we'll catch you."

Eeyore kept climbing until he came to a hollowed-out place in the tree trunk. He reached inside and felt around for the honey. In a second he was surrounded by angry bees!

Eeyour threw himself back and came tumbling out of the tree, right on top of Pooh!

They all picked themselves up and ran as fast as they could to Piglet's house. The bees swarmed after them, buzzing angrily.

As he ran Eeyore cried, "I don't think taking honey from the Honey Tree makes me happy!"

But then it was Piglet's turn to show Eeyore how to be happy.

Luckily the bees didn't follow them all the way to Piglet's house. Once they were there, Piglet said, "I feel happy when I'm painting my house, Eeyore. Why don't you try it?"

He went to the garage to get some paint. Eeyore had never climbed a ladder before. Piglet tried to hold the ladder to keep it from shaking. But Piglet was small, and the ladder was big, and Eeyore was shaky! Halfway up the ladder, Eeyore tripped on his own tail.

Christopher and Tigger saw the ladder sway and tried to grab it. But Eeyore toppled over, right on top of the spilling paint.

"I don't think house-painting makes me happy," Eeyore said, dripping with paint.

His friends helped him to his feet and tried to wipe him off. "Thank you anyway," said Eeyore. "Thank you all for trying to show me how to be happy." He slowly headed off toward his gloomy home in Gloomy Place.

That evening, after a good bath, Eeyore sat in front of his little house. He looked up at the star-sprinkled sky. He looked at the big round moon.

"Hurricane weather!" he said to himself gloomily. One day of happiness was enough. It was good to be gloomy again.