Happy Birthday
With acknowledgement to A A Milne, on the occasion of Eeyore's birthday:
Pooh therefore needs someone to write the happy birthday, so he goes off to find Owl, and wishes him many happy returns of Eeyore's birthday. Pooh says that he is going to give Eeyore the jar for his birthday, and Owl says that someone has been keeping honey in the jar, which Pooh knew already, and also that someone should write Happy Birthday on the jar, and Pooh already knew that too.
Pooh asks Owl to do the writing, because his own spelling is good but Wobbly. Owl admires the pot and says that they should give it to Eeyore from both of them, but Pooh says that that is not a good idea. Pooh washes the pot, and Owl has a bit of a think as to how you spell the word birthday.
Owl asks Pooh if he can read, and he is a bit anxious about this, but he seems to be reassured when Pooh says that he can read things if Christopher Robin explains what they say first. This seems to suggest that perhaps Owl's spelling is not as good as we had previously thought.
So Owl wrote...and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHETHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY
Pooh looked on admiringly.
"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly.
"It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
Owl explains that what he is actually writing is not just Happy Birthday, but a full A Very Happy Birthday with Love from Pooh, which is of course much longer than just happy birthday, and Explains Everything, whilst using up a great deal of pencil.
