The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh The House at Pooh Corner: Chapter 1 Summary

In Which A House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore.

  • Pooh is bored, so he goesover to Piglet's house to see what's up.
  • It's snowing, and he's surprised to see that his normally reclusive friend is not at home.
  • It's cold too, so naturally, Pooh makes up a song about being cold. It's the "tiddely pom" song, which keeps him busy while he waits. Before smart phones, that's what people did (Tiddely pom).
  • He decides to check in on Eeyore, but goes home first to get some warm clothes, making up a new song along the way.
  • Lo and behold, Piglet is waiting for him in his very own living room.
  • They decide to have a snack, then proceed to Eeyore's where Pooh will debut his newest song.
  • The walk over is cold, and Piglet tries to convince Pooh to turn back. But Pooh, like a good soldier—or just a stubborn-as-bees kind of guy—is determined to go on.
  • He convinces Piglet to practice the song outside, since it's an outside song, about snow of all things.
  • And another tiddely pom song to boot.
  • Being cold and grumpy, Piglet doesn't like it so much.
  • But as they get closer to Eeyore's, they stop at a gate in the path and sing the song six times over and by the end, even Piglet is feeling all warmed up.
  • As they're sitting, Pooh comes to a great realization: even though they're heading to the place where Eeyore lives, poor Eeyore doesn't actually have a house that he lives in.
  • He just kind of lives in an area.
  • Pooh declares that they should build Eeyore a house.
  • Right there at the gate, near the edge of the field.
  • Which is heretofore known as Pooh Corner. In spite of good intentions, Pooh is little self-centered, we've learned.
  • Like Columbus "discovering" America...
  • So they find a heap of sticks conveniently stacked up already, and carry them over to their new building site.
  • Meanwhile, the narrator takes us to Christopher Robin (the character), who's just receiving a visit from Eeyore himself.
  • The donkey, coincidentally, is in search of a house. Any house. A roof to cover his head during the snow.
  • After a stretch of you-should-feel-sorry-for-me-isms, Eeyore reveals that he actually built a house for himself that very morning.
  • Only he went out, and when he came back, it was gone!
  • Well, CR springs into action and gets ready to brave the elements to go look for Eeyore's missing house.
  • Any guesses what happened to it?
  • So they go to the edge of the field where Eeyore's stick house once stood.
  • That was another clue. Now any guesses?
  • When they get to the site of the missing house, CR hears something.
  • It's Pooh!
  • And Piglet!
  • Singing!
  • Singing a new tiddely pom song about building a house.
  • CR shouts to Pooh, who sees him near the place where they got all those neatly piled sticks.
  • Okay, now you know what happened, right?
  • CR explains about Eeyore's stick house, and Pooh and Piglet realize just how that connects with their stick house for Eeyore.
  • Oops.
  • Er.
  • Uh.
  • Well...
  • The new house is warmer, behind some trees and out of the wind, Piglet explains.
  • Eeyore, reasserting his own intelligence, assumes that his house was indeed where he said it was, only the wind blew it to this new place.
  • In fact, it is a better place than before.
  • Then Eeyore takes some pride in his own handiwork, which really wasn't his, which was mistaken for a random pile of sticks by Pooh and Piglet, which was rebuilt into a livable house for a stuffed donkey, who takes pride in his work, which isn't his...well, you get it.
  • CR, Pooh and Piglet leave the donkey to his abode, and walk home together for lunch, singing all the way.