Chapter 1 of Winnie-The-Pooh is entitled, "In which we are introduced to Winnie-The-Pooh and some Bees, and the stories begin." In this chapter, Christopher Robin tells a story about Winnie-the-Pooh. Winnie-the-Pooh, while out walking one day, comes to "an open place in the middle of the forest." Here he sees an oak tree, and coming from the top of the oak tree he hears a buzzing noise. He reasons that the buzzing must mean bees and that bees must mean honey. So, hungry for honey, his favorite food, he climbs to the top of the tree, singing to himself as he climbs. Near the top of the tree, a branch snaps, and Winnie-the-Pooh falls all the way back down to the ground, landing in a gorse-bush. He "brushe(s) the prickles from his nose," and decides to visit Christopher Robin, who lives "behind a green door in another part of the Forest."

He asks Christopher Robin for a balloon, which happens to be a blue one, and then he rolls around in "a very muddy place." His plan is to disguise himself as a cloud, and float up to the top of the tree and help himself to the honey. However, when he gets to the top of the tree, the bees become suspicious. He asks Christopher Robin, who has remained on the ground, to "walk up and down with (his) umbrella, saying, 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain.'" Winnie-the-Pooh hopes that this will be enough to fool the bees.

Unfortunately, the plan doesn't work, and Winnie-the-Pooh decides that the bees are "the wrong sort of bees." He asks Christopher Robin to shoot the balloon, so that he can fall back down to the ground. Christopher Robin, ever the helpful friend, duly obliges. Winnie-the-Pooh falls to the ground. His arms are "so stiff from holding on to the string of the balloon," that they stay stuck "straight in the air for more than a week."