So says Winnie the Pooh in an old story.
Winnie the Pooh likes honey, of course, and has the following adventure:
First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee." Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey." And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.
He got high up in the tree and almost reached the honey (and the bees) before a branch broke underneath him and he fell all the way to the ground again (but don’t worry, he landed on a gorse-bush).
Forthwith, Pooh thought of the idea of floating up on a balloon to get the honey…
"It's like this," he said. "When you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming. Now, if you have a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and not notice you, and if you have a blue balloon, they might think you were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is: Which is most likely?" "Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?" you asked. "They might or they might not," said Winnie-the-Pooh. "You never can tell with bees."
Brief aside: Now that I am almost a beekeeper, anything that I read about bees interests me much more than it ever could have before and also any bee joke I find very amusing.
Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky, and stayed there -- level with the top of the tree and about twenty feet away from it. "Hooray!" you shouted. "Isn't that fine?" shouted Winnie-the-Pooh down to you. "What do I look like?" "You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said. "Not," said Pooh anxiously, " -- not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?" "Not very much." "Ah, well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, you never can tell with bees."
You can read the full story, the beginnings of Pooh Bear, here.
