“Bother!” said Rabbit. “He’s gone out.”
He went back to the green front door, just to make sure, and he was turning away, feeling that his morning had got all spoilt, when he saw a piece of paper on the ground. And there was a pin in it, as if it had fallen off the door.
“Ha!” said Rabbit, feeling quite happy again. “Another notice!”
This is what it said:
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON.
C.R.
“Ha!” said Rabbit again. “I must tell the others.” And he hurried off importantly.
The nearest house was Owl’s, and to Owl’s House in the Hundred Acre Wood he made his way. He came to Owl’s door, and he knocked and he rang, and he rang and he knocked, and at last Owl’s head came out and said “Go away, I’m thinking—oh, it’s you?” which was how he always began.
“Owl,” said Rabbit shortly, “you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest—and when I say thinking I mean thinking—you and I must do it.”
