The bridge crossing the shallow stream in the Hundred-Acre Wood had just been painted. Very important-looking signs that said WET PAINT! KEEP OFF! stood guard at both ends. But whoever had painted the bridge had left poor Eeyore stuck on one side, and the rest of his friends on the other!
"Don't worry, Eeyore!" Pooh called. "The paint should be dry soon!" But each time Pooh tapped the bridge with his hand, it came back smudged with fresh paint.
Eeyore sighed. Things like this were always happening to him.
Sadly, the friends gazed across the water at each other. It seemed that the paint was taking a very long time to dry.
Eeyore hung his head and looked at his reflection in the water. "Just my luck," was all he could say.
Suddenly a loud, familiar noise caught everyone's attention.
BOUNCE! BOUNCE! BOUNCE!
"Hallooo!" bellowed Tigger. "Hoo-hoo-hoo! Whatcha doin'?"
"W-w-well, we wanted to play with Eeyore over there, but the bridge..." Piglet didn't even get to finish his sentence before Tigger had bounced onto the wet bridge.
"Yuck!" cried Tigger, bouncing back to shore and shaking the paint from his feet. "Tiggers hate wet paint."
Then Tigger sat up proudly. "I will get to Eeyore," he said. "Watch me bounce right over the water."
Pooh and Piglet started to protest, but Tigger wouldn't listen. He took a running start and BOUNCE! He landed right in the middle of the stream.
"Yeow!" he said, shaking himself off and showering Pooh and Piglet in the process.
It took a lot to discourage Tigger. He tried again and again. Each time he landed in the water, he shook himself off all over Pooh and Piglet.
Piglet wiped the water off his face and Pooh wrung out his shirt. "Since we're all wet," said Piglet, "why don't we just wade across to Eeyore?"
What an excellent idea! Pooh and Piglet held hands and slowly waded across the shallow stream to Eeyore.
"And I didn't even have to get wet!" Eeyore said happily as the friends climbed up the bank to meet him. At that moment, Tigger bounced up to join them, spraying water all over Eeyore, after all.
"It figures," Eeyore said, standing in a puddle.
Soon Rabbit came by. He glanced at the wet group and then tapped the bridge with a finger. "Ah, nice and dry," he said, pulling off hte WET PAINT sign. Then he marched across the bridge and pulled off the other sign.
"Well," said Eeyore as they watched Rabbit disappear into the Hundred Acre Wood, "now that the bridge is dry and we're all wet, does anyone want to go swimming?"