# Now We Are Six

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Illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard. First published in 1927, this transcription is of a 1961 American reprint featuring a different layout than the original.
NOW
WE ARE SIX
A. A. Milne
NOW WE ARE SIX
Books for Boys and Girls by A. A. MILNE with Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard
Winnie-the-Pooh THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER When We Were Very Young Now We Are Six THE WORLD OF POOH THE WORLD OF CHRISTOPHER ROBIN THE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN STORY BOOK
Song-Books from the Poems of A. A. MILNE with Music by H. FRASER-SIMON
THE POOH SONG BOOK FOURTEEN SONGS FROM WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG
A. A. Milne
Now We Are Six
with decorations by
Ernest H. Shepard
E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
Publishers: New York
NOW WE ARE SIX
Copyright, 1927, by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc Copyright Renewal, 1955, by A. A. Milne All rights reserved.
Reprinted September 1961 in this completely new format designed by Warren Chappell
Printed in the United States of America by the American Book-Stratford Press, Inc., New York
Introduction
When you are reciting poetry, which is a thing we never do, you find sometimes, just as you are beginning, that Uncle John is still telling Aunt Rose that if he can't find his spectacles he won't be able to hear properly, and does she know where they are; and by the time everybody has stopped looking for them, you are at the last verse, and in another minute they will be saying, "Thank-you, thank-you," without really knowing what it was all about. So, next time, you are more careful; and, just before you begin you say, "Er-h'r'm!" very loudly, which means, "Now then, here we are'; and everybody stops talking and looks at you: which is what you want. So then you get in the way of saying it whenever you are asked to recite . . , and sometimes it is just as well, and sometimes it isn't. . . . And by and by you find yourself saying it without thinking. Well, this bit which I am writing now, called Introduction, is really the er-h'r'm of the book, and I have put it in, partly so as not to take you by surprise, and partly because I can't do without it now. There are some very clever writers who say that it is quite easy not to have an er-h'r'm, but I don't agree with them. I think it is much easier not to have all the rest of the book.
​What I want to explain in the Introduction is this. We have been nearly three years writing this book. We began it when we were very young . . . and now we are six. So, of course, bits of it seem rather babyish to us, almost as if they had slipped out of some other book by mistake. On page whatever-it-is there is a thing which is simply three-ish, and when we read it to ourselves just now we said, "Well, well, well," and turned over rather quickly. So we want you to know that the name of the book doesn't mean that this is us being six all the time, but that it is about as far as we've got at present, and we half think of stopping there.
a. a. m.
P.S.—Pooh wants us to say that he thought it was a different book; and he hopes you won't mind, but he walked through it one day, looking for his friend Piglet, and sat down on some of the pages by mistake.
Contents
* page
* Solitude3
* King John’s Christmas4
* Busy9
* Sneezles14
* Binker17
* Cherry Stones21
* The Knight Whose Armour Didn’t Squeak24
* Buttercup Days31
* The Charcoal-Burner32
* Us Two35
* The Old Sailor38
* The Engineer44
* Journey’s End46
* Furry Bear48
* Forgiven50
* The Emperor’s Rhyme53
* Knight-in-Armour57
* Come Out with Me59
* Down by the Pond60
* The Little Black Hen62
* The Friend67
* The Good Little Girl68
* A Thought71
* King Hilary and the Beggerman72
* Swing Song79
* Explained80
* Twice Times83
* The Morning Walk87
* Cradle Song89
* Waiting at the Window91
* Pinkle Purr93
* Wind on the Hill95
* Forgotten97
* In the Dark101
* The End104
NOW WE ARE SIX
TO ANNE DARLINGTON NOW SHE IS SEVEN AND BECAUSE SHE IS SO SPESHAL
Layout 2
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1956, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 67 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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