In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There
- Christopher Robin is going away.
- Everybody knows it. Nobody knows how they know it, or why he's leaving. But they know it's coming.
- So Rabbit calls a meeting of all the creatures in the forest. A "rissolution" he calls it, which is a creative way of spelling "resolution." Always a bit of humor, even in times of great sadness. Whew. Thank you, A.A. Milne.
- The meeting is held at Eeyore's house.
- Eeyore's actually written a poem to mark the occasion—the first poem or song that was not written by Pooh.
- In the poem, Eeyore writes about how difficult it is to write poetry. We agree, our donkey friend. Oh do we ever agree.
- But the gist of the poem is that it's a goodbye to Christopher Robin, with love, from the animals of the Hundred Acre Wood.
- The rissolution, it turns out, is that they all sign the poem. So they do.
- On to CR's house.
- Nobody really wants to say anything at first, because goodbyes are hard. But eventually Eeyore takes the lead.
- He hands CR the poem, but leaves before he can finish reading it.
- Everyone else starts to leave too, and by the time CR is finished, only Pooh is left.
- Why do they leave? Well, we'll get into that analysis later on.
- CR folds the poem up and puts it in his pocket, and bids Pooh come along with him.
- Where? We're not sure yet.
- Along the way, CR asks what Pooh likes best in the world.
- After much pondering, Pooh decides that his favorite thing is going with Piglet to visit Christopher Robin, and CR offering them a little snack, and it being the kind of day that makes you want to write a song.
- What CR likes best is doing nothing. Exactly what he means by this is something we'll also get into later.
- They walk along doing nothing together, until they come to the enchanted place, a circle of trees with plush grass carpeting.
- CR suddenly starts to tell Pooh about all sorts of things: history things, math things, science things, geography things.
- He tells Pooh about knights.
- Naturally, Pooh would like to be grand like a knight.
- So naturally, CR knights Pooh in a kingly way.
- They go back to doing nothing, and Pooh creates a confused amalgamation of all the information CR has told him.
- He realizes then that CR will want to tell him more things, which CR will learn wherever he's going, and that this will be very confusing for a bear of very little brain.
- Just as Pooh is realizing that CR won't be telling him so much anymore, CR starts talking some more.
- He says he won't be doing nothing anymore. "They" don't let you.
- They both realize that this is the end, but they make a pact to always be able to see each other in this enchanted place.
- Pooh promises that he'll never forget Christopher Robin.
- CR says something a bit cryptic that implies he won't always be able to remember Pooh, at least not in the way he thinks of him now.
- But that's the future.
- For now, they hold hands and go off together.
- Milne (the narrator) ends the book with a much wider perspective, telling us that whatever happens to them (e.g. growing up), in that enchanted place in the forest there will always be a little boy and his bear playing together.