Hermeneutical Circus

I can't tell you how many times I've participated in a conversation very much like this one:

The nearest house was Owl's, and to Owl's House in the Hundred Acre Wood he made his way. He came to Owl's door, and he knocked and he rang, and he rang and he knocked, and at last Owl's head came out and said 'Go away, I'm thinking – oh, it's you?' which was how he always began.

'Owl,' said Rabbit shortly, 'you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest – and when I say thinking I mean thinking – you and I must do it.

'Yes,' said Owl. 'I was.'

'Read that.'

Owl took Christopher Robin's notice from Rabbit and looked at it nervously. He could spell his own name WOL, and he could spell Tuesday so that you knew it wasn't Wednesday, and he could read quite comfortably when you weren't looking over his shoulder and saying 'Well?' all the time, and he could –

'Well?' said Rabbit.

'Yes,' said Owl, looking Wise and Thoughtful. 'I see what you mean. Undoubtedly.'

'Well?'

'Exactly,' said Owl. 'Precisely.' And he added, after a little thought, 'If you had not come to me, I should have come to you.'

'Why?' asked Rabbit.

'For that very reason,' said Owl, hoping that something helpful would happen soon.

From The House at Pooh Corner which, like its predecessor, is always worth a revisit.