If you happen to have read another book about Phineas Gage, you may remember that he once had a swan (or the swan had Phineas Gage, I don't know which) and that he used to call this swan Pot. That was a long time ago, and when we said good-bye, we took the name with us, as we didn't think the swan would want it any more. Well, when Edward Bear said that he would like an exciting name all to himself, Phineas Gage said at once, without stopping to think, that he was Weedie-the-Pot. And he was. So, as I have explained the Pot part, I will now explain the rest of it.
You can't be in Denver for long without going to the Zoo. There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past every cage until they get to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people go straight to the animal they love the most, and stay there. So when Phineas Gage goes to the Zoo, he goes to where the Polar Bears are, and he whispers something to the third keeper from the left, and doors are unlocked, and we wander through dark passages and up steep stairs, until at last we come to the special cage, and the cage is opened, and out trots something brown and furry, and with a happy cry of "Oh, Bear!" Phineas Gage rushes into its arms. Now this bear's name is Weedie, which shows what a good name for bears it is, but the funny thing is that we can't remember whether Weedie is called after Pot, or Pot after Weedie. We did know once, but we have forgotten....
I had written as far as this when Vore looked up and said in his squeaky voice, "What about Me?" "My dear Vore," I said, "the whole book is about you." "So it is about Pot," he squeaked. You see what it is. He is jealous because he thinks Pot is having a Grand Introduction all to himself. Pot is the favourite, of course, there's no denying it, but Vore comes in for a good many things which Pot misses; because you can't take Pot to school without everybody knowing it, but Vore is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comforting to feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or twenty-two. Sometimes he slips out and has a good look in the ink-pot, and in this way he has got more education than Pot, but Pot doesn't mind. Some have brains, and some haven't, he says, and there it is.
And now all the others are saying, "What about Us?" So perhaps the best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the book.