1
00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:25,319
Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. Do you

2
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:31,040
Speaker 1: have a favorite toy. When I was a little girl,

3
00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:37,640
Speaker 1: I had a favorite white teddy bear. I took my

4
00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:43,720
Speaker 1: teddy bear everywhere I went and always played with him.

5
00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,400
Speaker 1: And I remember as I got older and he got older,

6
00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: I always loved him more and more. But he didn't

7
00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:58,600
Speaker 1: always look his best, but to me, he was always real.

8
00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 1: This episode is a story called the Velveteen Rabbit. The

9
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:24,480
Speaker 1: Velveteen Rabbit, there was once a velveteen rabbit, and in

10
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:31,360
Speaker 1: the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and

11
00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:36,400
Speaker 1: bunchy as a rabbit should be. His coat was spotted

12
00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:42,120
Speaker 1: brown and white. He had real thread whiskers, and his

13
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:48,400
Speaker 1: ears were lined with pink satine. On Christmas morning, when

14
00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:51,680
Speaker 1: he sat wedged in the top of the boys stocking

15
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:56,360
Speaker 1: with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect

16
00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:03,480
Speaker 1: was charming. There were other things in the stocking, nuts

17
00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:08,240
Speaker 1: and oranges, and a toy engine, and chocolate almonds, and

18
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:13,639
Speaker 1: a clockwork mouse, but the rabbit was quite the best

19
00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:21,079
Speaker 1: of all, or at least two hours. The boy loved him,

20
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: and then aunts and uncles came to dinner, and there

21
00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:29,919
Speaker 1: was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels,

22
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:34,440
Speaker 1: and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents.

23
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:44,040
Speaker 1: The velveteen rabbit was forgotten for a long time. He

24
00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,600
Speaker 1: lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor,

25
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:53,480
Speaker 1: and no one thought very much about him. He was

26
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:58,960
Speaker 1: naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of

27
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:05,680
Speaker 1: the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys

28
00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:12,079
Speaker 1: were very superior and looked down upon everyone else. They

29
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,919
Speaker 1: were full of modern ideas and pretended they were real.

30
00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:23,560
Speaker 1: The model Boaked, who had lived through two seasons and

31
00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,919
Speaker 1: lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them

32
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 1: and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging

33
00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:40,360
Speaker 1: in technical terms. The rabbit could not claim to be

34
00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:45,200
Speaker 1: a model of anything, for he didn't know that real

35
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:50,320
Speaker 1: rabbits existed. He thought they were all stuffed with sawdust,

36
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:55,840
Speaker 1: like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out

37
00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,760
Speaker 1: of date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.

38
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,400
Speaker 1: Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by

39
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:12,440
Speaker 1: the disabled soldiers and should have had broader views, put

40
00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:17,160
Speaker 1: on airs and pretended he was connected with the government.

41
00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:24,719
Speaker 1: Between them all, the poor little rabbit was made to

42
00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:31,600
Speaker 1: feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person

43
00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:35,280
Speaker 1: who was kind to him at all was the skin horse.

44
00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,400
Speaker 1: The skin horse had lived longer in the nursery than

45
00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:01,120
Speaker 1: any of the others. He was so old that his

46
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath,

47
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,040
Speaker 1: and most of the hairs in his tail had been

48
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:18,120
Speaker 1: pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for

49
00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:22,760
Speaker 1: he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive

50
00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,920
Speaker 1: to boast and swagger, and by and by break their

51
00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were

52
00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:38,479
Speaker 1: only toys and would never turn into anything else. For

53
00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:45,880
Speaker 1: nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those

54
00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:51,320
Speaker 1: playthings that are old and wise and experienced, like the

55
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:59,480
Speaker 1: skin horse, understood all about it. What is real, asked

56
00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:02,760
Speaker 1: the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by

57
00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,720
Speaker 1: side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy

58
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:11,280
Speaker 1: the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside

59
00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:16,719
Speaker 1: you and a stick out handle? Real isn't how you

60
00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:21,159
Speaker 1: are made, said the skin horse. It's a thing that

61
00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:25,960
Speaker 1: happens to you when a child loves you for a

62
00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:32,200
Speaker 1: long long time, not just to play with, but really

63
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:41,159
Speaker 1: loves you. Then you become real. Does it hurt, asked

64
00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:46,680
Speaker 1: the rabbit, sometimes, said the skin horse, for he was

65
00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:52,119
Speaker 1: always truthful. When you are real, you don't mind being hurt.

66
00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,080
Speaker 1: Does it happen all at once, like being wound up?

67
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:02,160
Speaker 1: He asked? Or bit by bit? It doesn't happen all

68
00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:07,480
Speaker 1: at once, said the skin horse. You become it takes

69
00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,600
Speaker 1: a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to

70
00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:16,080
Speaker 1: people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who

71
00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:22,360
Speaker 1: have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you

72
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,360
Speaker 1: are real, most of your hair has been loved off,

73
00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,400
Speaker 1: and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in

74
00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:35,480
Speaker 1: the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter

75
00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 1: at all, because once you are real, you can't be ugly,

76
00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:47,559
Speaker 1: except to people who don't understand. I suppose you are real,

77
00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,280
Speaker 1: asked the rabbit, and then he wished he had not

78
00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,800
Speaker 1: said it, for he thought the skin horse might be sensitive.

79
00:07:55,880 --> 00:08:02,320
Speaker 1: But the skin horse only smiled. The boy's uncle made

80
00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:06,480
Speaker 1: me real, he said, That was a great many years ago.

81
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,160
Speaker 1: But once you are real. You can't become unreal again.

82
00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:19,360
Speaker 1: It lasts for always. The rabbit sighed. He thought it

83
00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:23,400
Speaker 1: would be a long time before this magic called real

84
00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:29,360
Speaker 1: happened to him. He longed to become real, to know

85
00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,959
Speaker 1: what it felt like, And yet the idea of growing

86
00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:37,839
Speaker 1: shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad.

87
00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:42,360
Speaker 1: He wished that he would become it without these uncomfortable

88
00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:53,080
Speaker 1: things happening to him. There was a person called Nana

89
00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:59,080
Speaker 1: who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of

90
00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:04,760
Speaker 1: the playthings lying about, and sometimes for no reason whatsoever,

91
00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,800
Speaker 1: she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled

92
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:16,040
Speaker 1: them away in cupboards. She called this tidying up, and

93
00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:23,600
Speaker 1: the playthings all hated it, especially the tin ones. The

94
00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:27,800
Speaker 1: rabbit didn't mind it so much, for wherever he was thrown,

95
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:35,600
Speaker 1: he came down soft. One evening, when the boy was

96
00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,680
Speaker 1: going to bed, he couldn't find the china dog that

97
00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:44,679
Speaker 1: he always slept with. Nana was in a hurry, and

98
00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:48,280
Speaker 1: it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs

99
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:53,080
Speaker 1: at bedtime, so she simply looked about her, and, seeing

100
00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:56,520
Speaker 1: that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made a

101
00:09:56,559 --> 00:10:01,160
Speaker 1: swoop here, she said, take your old bunny, he'll do

102
00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:04,719
Speaker 1: to sleep with you, And she dragged the rabbit out

103
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:11,959
Speaker 1: by one ear and put him into the boy's arms.

104
00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:18,400
Speaker 1: That night, and for many nights after, the velveteen rabbit

105
00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:23,680
Speaker 1: slept in the boy's bed. At first he found it

106
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:29,440
Speaker 1: rather uncomfortable, for the boy hugged him very tight, and

107
00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:34,680
Speaker 1: sometimes he rolled over on him, and sometimes he pushed

108
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:38,160
Speaker 1: him so far under the pillow that the rabbit could

109
00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:43,960
Speaker 1: scarcely breathe. And he missed too those long moonlight hours

110
00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:48,720
Speaker 1: in the nursery when all the house was silent, and

111
00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:54,160
Speaker 1: his talks with the skin horse. But very soon he

112
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,400
Speaker 1: grew to like it, for the boy used to talk

113
00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,840
Speaker 1: to him and made nice tunnels for him under the

114
00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:04,280
Speaker 1: bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real

115
00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:10,280
Speaker 1: rabbits lived in, and they had splendid games together in

116
00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:14,560
Speaker 1: whispers when Nana had gone away to her supper and

117
00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:19,400
Speaker 1: left the nightlight burning on the mantelpiece, And when the

118
00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:23,959
Speaker 1: boy dropped off to sleep, the rabbit would snuggle down

119
00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:29,880
Speaker 1: close under his warm little chin and dream with the

120
00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:39,160
Speaker 1: boy's hands clasped clothes round him all night long. And

121
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:45,440
Speaker 1: so time went on, and the little rabbit was very happy,

122
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:51,360
Speaker 1: so happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen

123
00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:59,200
Speaker 1: fur was getting shabbier and shabbier, and his tail becoming unsown,

124
00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:04,040
Speaker 1: and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the

125
00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:12,400
Speaker 1: boy had kissed him. Spring came and they had long

126
00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:17,000
Speaker 1: days in the garden. For wherever the boy went, the

127
00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:22,320
Speaker 1: rabbit went too. He had rides in the wheelbarrow, and

128
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,400
Speaker 1: picnics on the grass, and lovely fairy huts built for

129
00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:33,079
Speaker 1: him under the raspberry canes behind the flower border. And

130
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: once when the boy was called away suddenly to go

131
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:40,120
Speaker 1: out to tea, the rabbit was left out on the

132
00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:44,360
Speaker 1: lawn until long after dusk, and Nana had to come

133
00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:47,320
Speaker 1: and look for him with a candle, because the boy

134
00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:53,120
Speaker 1: couldn't go to sleep unless he was there. He was

135
00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:57,480
Speaker 1: wet through with the dew and quite earthy from diving

136
00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,960
Speaker 1: into the burrows The boy had made him in the flower,

137
00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,520
Speaker 1: and Nana grumbled as she rubbed him off with a

138
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:12,800
Speaker 1: corner of her apron. You must have your old bunny,

139
00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:18,320
Speaker 1: she said. Fancy all that fuss for a toy. The

140
00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,959
Speaker 1: boy sat up in bed and stretched out his hands,

141
00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,360
Speaker 1: give me my bunny. He said, you mustn't say that

142
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:30,520
Speaker 1: he isn't a toy, He's real. When the little rabbit

143
00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:36,000
Speaker 1: heard that, he was happy, for he knew that what

144
00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:41,440
Speaker 1: the skin horse had said was true. At last, the

145
00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:46,080
Speaker 1: nursery magic had happened to him, and he was a

146
00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:53,280
Speaker 1: toy no longer. He was real. The boy himself had

147
00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:59,920
Speaker 1: said it. That night he was almost too happy to sleep,

148
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,680
Speaker 1: and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart

149
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:11,319
Speaker 1: that it almost burst. And into his boot button eyes

150
00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,280
Speaker 1: that had long ago lost their polish, there came a

151
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:21,320
Speaker 1: look of wisdom and beauty, so that even Nana noticed

152
00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:24,320
Speaker 1: it next morning, when she picked him up and said,

153
00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:30,920
Speaker 1: I declare if that old bunny hasn't got quite a

154
00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:32,720
Speaker 1: knowing expression,