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My Father's Dragon - Part 1

My Father's Dragon - Part 1

Released Thursday, 20th June 2024
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My Father's Dragon - Part 1

My Father's Dragon - Part 1

My Father's Dragon - Part 1

My Father's Dragon - Part 1

Thursday, 20th June 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:01

This episode of Sleepy is proudly sponsored

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ButcherBox has made me very happy. Sign

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Fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions

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apply. Make

2:30

sure you get the latest episodes. Go

2:32

listen to I Can't Sleep for more snoozy

2:34

content. Hey,

2:43

my name's Otis Gray, and you're

2:45

listening to Sleepy. A

2:53

podcast where I read old books to help you get

2:55

to sleep. And this is a

2:58

midweek bedtime story for you. I

3:05

have a lovely bedtime story for you tonight,

3:08

and it's kind of a longer short

3:11

story that I will

3:13

be breaking up into two parts. So

3:16

tonight, this Wednesday, this

3:18

midweek episode, you'll be hearing

3:20

part one. And then next

3:22

week, on Wednesday, you'll be

3:24

hearing the second and final part to the

3:27

story. This

3:29

is a really, really wonderful story to read out

3:31

loud. And I

3:33

hope you like falling asleep to it. And

3:38

I really hope you've been enjoying these

3:41

midweek episodes. These are

3:43

episodes that generally have a beginning, middle, and

3:45

an end to break up your week. As

3:49

always, our longer episodes are on Sundays, where

3:52

we'll tell longer stories and

3:54

I'll have a chance to personally

3:56

thank all of our brand

3:58

new patrons on Patreon. patreon.com, which

4:01

is a website where you can go and punch

4:04

a couple bucks for an ad-free version of

4:06

Sleepy. So, I would

4:09

like to just generally thank all

4:11

of our amazing patrons. Thank

4:13

you so, so much. And

4:16

if you would like to be a patron and have

4:19

a shout out in one of

4:21

our Sunday episodes, and maybe get

4:23

an ad-free version of the show, you

4:25

can just go to

4:27

patreon.com/Sleepy Radio. Thanks.

4:32

And as always, the music you're hearing

4:34

is by my good friend James Lepkowski,

4:36

and the cover-up for Sleepy is by

4:39

Gracie Kana. Tonight,

4:49

as it is getting towards the heat of summer,

4:51

I figured we'd

4:54

read kind of a more jungly tale. So

4:57

tonight, I'll be reading the first part

4:59

of My Father's Dragon

5:02

by Ruth Styles Gannon. This

5:06

is a very whimsical old

5:08

child's tale that

5:12

is definitely made to be read out loud, it

5:14

feels like. I

5:16

really enjoyed reading it, and

5:20

next week you'll get to hear

5:22

part two on Wednesday. But

5:26

for tonight, I hope you

5:28

sleep extra sleepy and

5:30

soundly to My Father's

5:33

Dragon by Ruth Styles Gannon,

5:36

chapters one through five. And

5:40

now is the time for you to fluff up

5:42

your pillow just how you like it. Feel

5:46

yourself melt into your bed. Get

5:49

real comfortable. Close

5:52

your eyes. And

5:54

let me read to you. Chapter

6:08

1 My Father Meets

6:10

the Cat One

6:14

cold rainy day when my father was a little

6:17

boy, he met an old alley cat

6:19

on his street. The

6:22

cat was very drippy and uncomfortable, so

6:24

my father said, wouldn't you like to come home

6:26

with me? This

6:30

surprised the cat. She had

6:32

never before met anyone who cared about old

6:34

alley cats, but she said, I'd

6:36

be very much obliged if I could sit by

6:38

a warm furnace and perhaps have a

6:41

saucer of milk. We

6:44

have a very nice furnace to sit by, said my

6:47

father, and I'm sure my mother

6:49

has an extra saucer of milk. My

6:53

father and the cat became good friends, but

6:56

my father's mother was very upset about the

6:58

cat. She

7:00

hated cats, particularly old, ugly

7:03

alley cats. Elmer

7:05

Elevator, she said to my father, if

7:09

you think I'm going to give that cat

7:11

a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. Once

7:14

you start feeding stray alley cats, you might

7:16

as well expect to feed every stray in

7:18

town, and I am not going to

7:20

do it. This

7:24

made my father very sad, and he

7:27

apologized to the cat because his mother had

7:29

been so rude. He

7:32

told the cat to stay anyway, and

7:34

that somehow he would bring her a saucer of milk

7:36

each day. My

7:39

father fed the cat for three weeks, but

7:42

one day his mother found the cat saucer

7:44

in the cellar and she was extremely angry.

7:49

She whipped my father and threw the cat out the

7:51

door, but later on

7:53

my father sneaked out and found the

7:55

cat. Together

7:58

they went for a walk in the park. then

8:00

tried to think of nice things to talk about.

8:04

My father said, When I grow

8:06

up, I'm going to have an airplane. Wouldn't

8:09

it be wonderful to fly just anywhere you

8:11

might think of? Would

8:15

you like to fly very, very much, asked the

8:17

cat? I certainly

8:19

would. I'd do anything if I could fly.

8:24

Well, said the cat, If

8:26

you'd really like to fly that much, I think

8:28

I know of a sort of way you might get to fly

8:31

while you're still a little boy. You

8:34

mean you know where I could get an airplane? Well,

8:38

not exactly an airplane, but

8:40

something even better. As

8:42

you can see, I'm an old cat now. But

8:46

in my younger days, I was quite a traveler. My

8:50

traveling days are over, but last

8:52

spring, I took just one more trip and

8:54

sailed to the island of Tangerina, stopping

8:57

at the port of Cranberry. Well,

9:01

it just so happened that I missed the boat,

9:04

and while waiting for the next, I thought I'd

9:06

look around a bit. I

9:09

was particularly interested in a place called

9:11

Wild Island, which we had passed

9:13

on our way to Tangerina. Wild

9:16

Island and Tangerina are joined together by a

9:19

long string of rocks, but

9:21

people never go to Wild Island because

9:23

it's mostly jungle and inhabited by

9:25

very wild animals. So

9:29

I decided to go across the rocks and

9:31

explore it for myself. It

9:33

certainly is an interesting place, but

9:36

I saw something there that made me want

9:38

to weep. Chapter

9:44

2 My Father Runs Away

9:50

Wild Island is practically cut in two by

9:52

a very wide and muddy river, continued the

9:54

cat. This river begins

9:56

near one end of the island and flows into

9:58

the ocean at the other. there. Now

10:01

the animals there are very lazy, and they used to

10:04

hate having to go all the way around to the

10:06

beginning of this river to get to the other side

10:08

of the island. It

10:10

made visiting inconvenient and mail

10:12

deliveries slow, particularly during

10:15

the Christmas rush. Crocodiles

10:19

could have carried passengers and mail across the

10:21

river, but crocodiles are very

10:23

moody and not the least bit

10:25

dependable, and are always looking for something

10:27

to eat. They

10:31

don't care if the animals have to walk around the

10:33

river, so that's just what the

10:35

animals did for many years. But

10:39

what does all this have to do with airplanes,

10:41

asked my father, who thought the cat

10:43

was taking an awfully long time to explain.

10:48

Be patient, Elmer, said the cat, and

10:50

she went on with the story. One

10:54

day about four months before I arrived on

10:56

Wild Island, a baby dragon

10:58

fell from a low-flying cloud onto

11:00

the bank of the river. He

11:03

was too young to fly very well, and

11:05

besides, he had bruised one wing quite

11:07

badly, so he couldn't get

11:09

back to his cloud. The

11:13

animals found him soon afterwards, and

11:15

everybody said, why, this

11:17

is just exactly what we've needed all these

11:20

years. They

11:23

tied a big rope around his neck and

11:25

waited for the wing to get well. This

11:28

was going to end all their crossing the river

11:30

troubles. I've

11:35

never seen a dragon, said my father. Did

11:37

you see him? How big is he? Oh,

11:42

yes. Indeed, I saw the dragon. In

11:45

fact, we became great friends, said the cat.

11:48

I used to hide in the bushes and talk to

11:50

him when nobody was around. He's

11:54

not a very big dragon, about

11:56

the size of a large black bear, although I

11:59

imagine he's clearly a big dragon. grown quite a bit since

12:01

I left. He's

12:03

got a long tail and yellow and blue

12:05

stripes. His horn and

12:07

eyes and the bottoms of his feet are bright

12:10

red, and he has gold-colored wings.

12:14

Oh, how wonderful, said my father. What

12:17

did the animals do with him when his wing got

12:19

well? They

12:23

started training him to carry passengers,

12:26

and even though he was just a baby dragon, they

12:29

work him all day and all night too sometimes.

12:33

They make him carry loads that are much too

12:35

heavy, and if he

12:37

complains, they twist his wings and beat him.

12:42

He's always tried to stake on a

12:44

rope just long enough to go across

12:46

the river, as only friends are the

12:49

crocodiles who say hello to him once

12:51

a week if they don't forget. Really,

12:54

he's the most miserable animal I've ever

12:57

come across. When

12:59

I left, I promised I'd try to

13:01

help him someday, although I couldn't

13:03

see how. The rope around

13:05

his neck is about the biggest, toughest rope

13:07

you can imagine. With so many

13:09

knots, it would take days to untie them all. Anyway,

13:15

when you were talking about airplanes,

13:17

you gave me a good idea.

13:19

Now, I'm quite sure that if you were able

13:21

to rescue the dragon, which wouldn't be the least

13:23

bit easy, he'd let you ride

13:25

him most anywhere, provided you were nice

13:28

to him, of course. How

13:30

about trying it? Oh,

13:33

I'd love to, said my father, and

13:36

he was so angry at his mother for being rude

13:38

to the cat that he didn't feel the least bit

13:40

sad about running away from home for a while. That

13:45

very afternoon, my father and

13:47

the cat went down to the docks to

13:49

see about the ships going to the island

13:51

of Tangerina. They

13:54

found out that a ship would be sailing the

13:56

next week, so right

13:58

away, they started planning for the the rescue of

14:00

the dragon. The

14:03

cat was a great help in suggesting things for

14:05

my father to take with him, and

14:08

she told him everything she knew about Wild Island.

14:11

Of course, she was too old to go

14:13

along. Everything

14:17

had to be kept very secret, so

14:19

when they found or bought anything to take on the

14:21

trip, they hid it behind a rock in

14:23

the park. The

14:26

night before my father's sale, he

14:28

borrowed his father's knapsack, and

14:30

he and the cat packed everything very carefully. He

14:35

took chewing gum, two dozen

14:37

pink lollipops, a package

14:39

of rubber bands, black rubber boots, a

14:42

compass, a toothbrush, and

14:44

a tube of toothpaste, six

14:47

magnifying glasses, a

14:49

very sharp jackknife, a

14:51

comb and a hairbrush, seven

14:53

hair ribbons of different colors, an

14:56

empty grain bag with a label

14:58

saying cranberry, some

15:00

clean clothes, and enough food to

15:02

last my father while he was on the show. He

15:07

couldn't live on mice, so he

15:09

took twenty-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

15:12

and six apples, because that's all

15:14

the apples he could find in the pantry. When

15:19

everything was packed, my father and the

15:21

cat went down to the docks to the show. A

15:24

night watchman was on duty, so

15:27

while the cat made loud, queer noises

15:29

to distract his attention, my

15:31

father ran over the gangplank onto the show.

15:35

He went down into the hole and hid

15:37

among some bags of wheat. The

15:40

ship sailed early the next morning. Chapter

15:48

3 My Father Finds

15:50

the Island My

15:54

father hid in the hold for six days and nights.

15:58

Twice he was nearly caught when the ship stung. stop

16:00

to take on more cargo. But

16:03

at last he heard a sailor say that

16:05

the next port would be Cranberry and

16:07

that they'd be unloading the wheat there. My

16:11

father knew that the sailors would send him home if

16:13

they caught him, so he

16:15

looked into Snapsack and took out a

16:17

rubber band and an empty grain bag with

16:20

the label saying Cranberry. At

16:23

the last moment, my father got

16:25

inside the bag, Snapsack and all, folded

16:28

the top of the bag inside and

16:30

put the rubber band around the top. It

16:35

didn't look just exactly like the other bags,

16:37

but it was the best he could do. Soon

16:42

the sailors came to unload. They

16:44

lowered a big net into the hold and began

16:46

moving bags of wheat. Suddenly

16:49

one sailor yelled, Great Scott,

16:53

this is the queerest bag of wheat I've

16:55

ever seen. It's all

16:57

lumpy-like, but the label says it's

16:59

got to go to Cranberry. The

17:04

other sailors looked at the bag too, and

17:06

my father, who was in the bag of course,

17:09

tried even harder to look like a bag of

17:11

wheat. Then

17:13

another sailor felt the bag, and

17:15

he just happened to get a hold of my father's elbow.

17:19

I know what this is, he said. This

17:21

is a bag of dried corn on the cob, and

17:24

he dumped my father into the big net along with

17:26

the bags of wheat. This

17:31

all happened in the late afternoon, so

17:33

late that the merchant Cranberry, who had ordered

17:36

the wheat, didn't count his bags until the

17:38

next morning. He was

17:40

a very punctual man, and never late for

17:42

dinner. The

17:45

sailors told the captain, and the captain

17:47

wrote down on a piece of paper,

17:49

that they delivered 160 bags of wheat

17:52

and one bag of dried corn on the cob. They

17:56

left the piece of paper for the merchant and

17:59

sailed away that evening. My

18:04

father heard later that the merchant spent

18:06

the whole next day counting and recounting

18:08

the bags, and feeling each one

18:10

trying to find the bag of dried corn in

18:12

the cob. He never

18:14

found it, because as soon as it was

18:17

dark, my father climbed out of the

18:19

bag, folded it up, and put it

18:21

back in his knapsack. He

18:24

walked along the shore to a nice sandy place

18:26

and lay down to sleep. My

18:30

father was very hungry when he woke up the

18:32

next morning. Just as

18:34

he was looking to see if he had anything left to

18:37

eat, something hit him on the head. It

18:40

was a tangerine. He

18:42

had been sleeping right under a tree

18:45

full of big fat tangerines. And

18:47

then he remembered that this was the island

18:50

of Tangerina. Tangerine

18:52

trees grew wild everywhere. My

18:55

father picked as many as he had room for, which

18:58

was 31, and started off

19:00

to find Wild Island. He

19:04

walked and walked and walked along the shore,

19:07

looking for the rocks that joined the two islands.

19:11

He walked all day, and

19:13

once he met a fisherman and asked him

19:15

about Wild Island, the fisherman began

19:17

to shake and couldn't talk for

19:19

a long while. It

19:22

scared him that much, just thinking about it. Finally,

19:26

he said, many people have

19:28

tried to explore Wild Island, but

19:31

not one has come back alive. We

19:34

think they were eaten by wild animals. This

19:38

didn't bother my father. He

19:40

kept walking and slept on the beach

19:42

again that night. It

19:46

was beautifully clear the next day,

19:48

and way down on the shore, my

19:50

father could see a long line of rocks leading

19:53

out into the ocean, and way,

19:55

way out at the end, he could

19:57

see just a tiny patch of green. He

20:01

quickly ate seven tangerines and started down

20:03

to the beach. It

20:08

was almost dark when he came to the rocks, but

20:11

there, way out in the ocean, was the

20:13

patch of green. He

20:15

sat down and rested a while, remembering

20:18

that the cat had said, if

20:20

you can, go out to the island at night,

20:23

because then the wild animals won't see you coming

20:25

along the rocks and you can hide when you

20:27

get there. So

20:30

my father picked seven more tangerines, put

20:33

on his black rubber boots, and waited for

20:35

dark. It

20:39

was a very black night, and my

20:41

father could hardly see the rocks ahead of him. Sometimes

20:45

they were quite high and sometimes the waves

20:47

almost covered them, and they were

20:49

slippery and hard to walk on. Sometimes

20:54

the rocks were far apart, and my father

20:56

had to get a running star and leap

20:58

from one to the next. After

21:01

a while, he began to hear a rumbling noise.

21:05

It grew louder and louder as he got nearer

21:07

to the island. At

21:10

last it seemed as if he were right on top of the

21:12

noise, and he was. He

21:15

had jumped from a rock onto the back

21:17

of a small whale who was fast asleep

21:19

and cuddled up between two rocks. The

21:23

whale was snoring and making more noise

21:25

than a steam shovel, so

21:27

it never heard my father say, oh,

21:30

I didn't know that was you,

21:32

and it never knew my father had jumped on

21:35

its back by mistake. For

21:39

seven hours my father climbed and slipped and

21:41

leapt from rock to rock, but

21:44

while it was still dark, he finally reached

21:46

the very last rock and stepped

21:48

off onto Wild Island. Chapter

21:56

4 My Father

21:58

Finds the River The

22:03

jungle began just beyond a narrow strip of

22:05

beach, thick, dark,

22:07

damp, scary jungle. My

22:11

father hardly knew where to go, so

22:13

he crawled under a wahoo bush to think and

22:16

ate eight tangerines. The

22:19

first thing to do, he decided, was to find

22:22

the river, because the dragon

22:24

was tied somewhere along its bank. Then

22:27

he thought, if the river flows

22:29

into the ocean, I ought to

22:31

be able to find it quite easily if I just

22:34

walk along the beach far enough. So

22:37

my father walked until the sun rose, and

22:40

he was quite far from the ocean rocks. It

22:44

was dangerous to stay near them, because

22:47

they might be guarded in the daytime. He

22:50

found a clump of tall grass and sat down. Then

22:53

he took off his rubber boots and ate

22:56

three more tangerines. He

22:59

could have eaten twelve, but he hadn't

23:01

seen any tangerines on the island, and

23:03

he could not risk running out of something to eat. My

23:08

father slept all that day and only woke

23:10

up in the late afternoon when he heard

23:12

a funny little voice saying, Queer,

23:15

queer, what a dear little dock.

23:18

I mean, dear, dear, what

23:20

a queer little rock. My

23:24

father saw a tiny paw rubbing itself

23:26

on his knapsack. He

23:29

lay very still, and the mouse,

23:31

for it was a mouse, hurried

23:33

away muttering to itself. I

23:36

must smell tundutty. I

23:39

mean, I must tell somebody. My

23:44

father waited a few minutes and then

23:46

started down the beach, because it was

23:48

almost dark now, and he was

23:50

afraid the mouse really would tell somebody. He

23:54

walked all night, and two scary things

23:56

happened. First,

23:58

he just had to say, a sneeze. So

24:01

he did. And somebody close by

24:03

said, is that you, monkey?

24:07

My father said yes. Then

24:10

the voice said, you

24:12

must have something on your back,

24:15

monkey. And my father said yes,

24:17

because he did. He had

24:20

his knapsack on his back. What

24:23

do you have on your back, monkey? I asked the voice.

24:28

My father didn't know what to say, because what would

24:30

a monkey have on its back? And

24:32

how would it sound telling someone about it,

24:35

if it did have something? Just

24:38

then another voice said, I bet

24:40

you're taking your sick grandmother to the doctors.

24:45

My father said yes, and hurried on.

24:49

Quite by accident, he found out later that he

24:51

had been talking to a pair of tortoises. The

24:57

second thing that happened was that he

24:59

nearly rocked right between two wild boars who

25:02

were talking in low, solemn whispers.

25:06

When he first saw the dark shapes, he thought

25:09

they were boulders. Just

25:11

in time, he heard one of them say, there

25:13

are three signs of a recent invasion. First,

25:17

fresh tangerine peels were found under the

25:19

wahoo bush near the ocean rocks. Second,

25:23

a mouse reported an extraordinary rock some

25:26

distance from the ocean rocks, which

25:28

upon further investigation simply wasn't there.

25:33

However, more fresh tangerine

25:35

peels were found in the same spot, which

25:38

is the third sign of invasion. Since

25:42

tangerines do not grow on our island, somebody

25:45

must have brought them across the ocean rocks

25:47

from the other island, which

25:50

may or may not have something to

25:52

do with the appearance and or disappearance

25:54

of the extraordinary rock reported by the

25:56

mouse. After

26:00

a long silence, the other boar said,

26:04

you know, I think we're taking

26:06

all this too seriously. Those

26:08

peals probably floated over here all by

26:11

themselves. And you know

26:13

how unreliable mice are. Besides,

26:16

if there had been an invasion, I

26:18

would have seen it. Perhaps

26:21

you're right, said the first boar. Shall

26:24

we retire? Whereupon

26:26

they both trundled back into the jungle.

26:31

Well, that taught my father a lesson. And

26:34

after that, he saved all his tangerine peals.

26:38

We walked all night and toward morning came

26:40

to the river. Then his

26:42

troubles really began. Chapter

26:49

five, my father meets

26:52

some tigers. The

26:56

river was very wide and muddy, and

26:58

the jungle was very gloomy and dense. The

27:01

trees grew close to each other. And

27:04

what room there was between them was taken

27:06

up by great high ferns with sticky leaves.

27:11

My father hated to leave the beach, but

27:13

he decided to start along the river bay, where

27:16

at least the jungle wasn't quite so thick. He

27:20

ate three tangerines, making sure

27:22

to keep all the peals this time and

27:24

put on his rubber boots. My

27:28

father tried to follow the river bay, but

27:31

it was very swampy. And

27:33

as he went farther down the swamp, it became

27:35

deeper. When

27:38

it was almost as deep as his boot tops, he

27:41

got stuck in the oozy, mucky mud. My

27:45

father tugged and tugged and

27:47

nearly pulled his boots right off. But

27:50

at last he managed to wade to a drier

27:52

place. He

27:54

heard the jungle was so thick that he could hardly

27:57

see where the river was. unpacked

28:00

his compass and figured out the direction he

28:02

should walk in order to stay near the

28:04

river. But

28:07

he didn't know that the river made a very

28:09

sharp curve away from him, just

28:11

a little way beyond, and

28:13

so as he walked straight ahead he was

28:15

getting farther and farther away from the river. It

28:20

was very hard to walk in the jungle. The

28:23

sticky leaves of the ferns caught at my

28:25

father's hair, and he kept

28:27

tripping over roots and rotten logs. Sometimes

28:32

the trees were clumped so closely together

28:34

that he couldn't squeeze between them and

28:37

had to walk a long way around. He

28:41

began to hear whispery noises, but

28:43

he couldn't see any animals anywhere. The

28:47

deeper into the jungle he went, the

28:49

surer he was that something was following him, and

28:52

then he thought he heard whispery noises on both

28:54

sides of him as well as behind. He

28:59

tried to run, but he tripped over

29:01

more roots, and the noises only

29:03

came nearer. Once

29:07

or twice he thought he heard something laughing at

29:09

him. At

29:13

last he came out into a clearing and ran

29:15

into the middle of it so that he could

29:17

see anything that might try to attack him. Was

29:22

he surprised when he looked and saw fourteen

29:24

green eyes coming out of the jungle all

29:26

around the clearing, and when

29:28

the green eyes all turned into seven tigers?

29:33

The tigers walked around him in a big

29:35

circle, looking hungrier all the

29:37

time, and they sat down and

29:39

began to talk. I

29:43

suppose you thought we didn't know you were trespassing

29:45

in our jungle. Then the next tiger spoke. I

29:49

suppose you're going to say you didn't know it

29:51

was our jungle. Did

29:55

you know that not one explorer has ever left

29:57

this island alive, said the third tiger? My

30:02

father thought of the cat and knew this wasn't

30:04

true, but of course he had

30:06

too much sense to say so. One

30:10

doesn't contradict a hungry tiger. The

30:14

tigers went on talking in turn. You're

30:16

our first little boy, you know. I'm

30:19

curious to know if you're especially tender. Maybe

30:23

you think we have regular mealtimes, but

30:25

we don't. We just

30:27

eat whenever we're feeling hungry, said the fifth

30:29

tiger. And

30:33

we're very hungry right now. In

30:35

fact, I can hardly wait, said the sixth. I

30:39

can't wait, said the seventh

30:42

tiger. And then all the tigers said

30:44

together in a loud roar, let's

30:47

begin right now. And

30:49

they moved closer. My

30:52

father looked at those seven hungry tigers, and

30:55

then he had an idea. He quickly

30:58

opened his knapsack and took out

31:00

the chewing gum. The

31:03

cat had told him that tigers were especially

31:05

fond of chewing gum, which

31:07

was very scarce on the island. So

31:10

he threw them each a piece, but

31:12

they only growled. As fond

31:14

as we are of chewing gum, we're sure

31:17

we'd like you even better.

31:19

And they moved so close that he could feel

31:21

them breathing on his face. But

31:25

this is very special chewing gum, said

31:27

my father. If you keep

31:29

on chewing it long enough, it will

31:31

turn green. And then if you plant it,

31:34

it will grow more chewing gum. And

31:36

the sooner you start chewing, the sooner you'll have

31:38

more. The

31:42

tiger said, why, you

31:44

don't say. Isn't that

31:46

fine? And

31:49

as each one wanted to be the first to plant

31:51

the chewing gum, they all unwrapped

31:53

their pieces and began chewing as hard as

31:55

they could. Every

31:58

once in a while, one. tiger would look

32:00

into another's mouth and say, no

32:03

it's not done yet. Until

32:06

finally they were all so busy

32:08

looking into each other's mouths to make sure no

32:10

one was getting at him that they forgot all

32:12

about my father. Thank

32:23

you for listening to Sleepy. Good

32:25

night. you

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