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Speaker 1: Hello friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. A short

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Speaker 1: message for grown ups. If you get value from our stories,

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Speaker 1: like having a library full of bedtime stories at your fingertips.

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Speaker 1: Along with sleep sounds, guided meditations and music for sleep,

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Speaker 1: we help you make sleep time easier and hopefully bring

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Speaker 1: joy and calm to your children. Visit sleep Typepremium dot

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Speaker 1: com to subscribe. A link can also be found in

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Speaker 1: our show notes. Thank you. Today, I'm going to share

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Speaker 1: a story called the song Bird and the Healing Waters.

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Speaker 1: Once when the snow lay very deep on the ground

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Speaker 1: and the days were gray with frost, there was great

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Speaker 1: sorrow in an Indian village. A dreadful plague had come

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Speaker 1: upon the place and had carried away many of the people.

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Speaker 1: Neither old nor young were proof against its ravages, and

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Speaker 1: the weak and the strong fell helpless before its power.

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Speaker 1: The people tried every means to get rid of the plague,

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Speaker 1: but they had no success, and they prayed to all

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Speaker 1: their god spirits to help them, but no help came.

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Speaker 1: In the tribe was a young warrior who had lost

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Speaker 1: his parents and all his brothers and sisters because of

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Speaker 1: the dreaded disease. Now his young wife fell sick, and

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Speaker 1: he was in great sorrow, for he thought that she

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Speaker 1: would soon follow his parents into the land of the shadows,

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Speaker 1: and so he went about in great fear, not knowing

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Speaker 1: when the end would come. One day he met an

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Speaker 1: old woman in the forest. Why do you look so sorrowful,

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Speaker 1: she asked him. I am sad because my young wife

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Speaker 1: is going to die. He answered, the plague will carry

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Speaker 1: her off like the others. But the old woman said,

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Speaker 1: there is something that will save your wife from death.

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Speaker 1: Far away in the east is a bird of sweet song,

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Speaker 1: which dwells close to the healing waters. Go until you

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Speaker 1: find it. It will point you to the spring, the

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Speaker 1: waters of which alone can heal. The young man said,

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Speaker 1: I must find the healing waters, wherever they may be

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Speaker 1: upon the earth, I must find them. So he went

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Speaker 1: home and said goodbye to his friends, and set out

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Speaker 1: eastward on his quest. All the next day he searched

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Speaker 1: eagerly for the waters, listening always for the bird of

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Speaker 1: the sweet song, but he found nothing. The snow lay

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Speaker 1: deep in the forest, and he moved along with difficulty.

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Speaker 1: He met a rabbit in his path and he said,

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Speaker 1: tell me where I shall find the healing spring. But

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Speaker 1: the rabbit scurried away over the snow and made no answer.

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Speaker 1: Then he asked a bear, but he met with the

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Speaker 1: same rebuff. Thus, for many days and nights he wandered on,

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Speaker 1: crossing rivers and climbing steep hills, but always without success.

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Speaker 1: Then one day he emerged from the snow country and

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Speaker 1: came to a land where the airs were warmer and

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Speaker 1: where little streams were flowing. Suddenly he came upon the

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Speaker 1: body of a man lying across his path. He stopped

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Speaker 1: and buried the body, for he thought that it was

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Speaker 1: not right to leave it lying bare upon the ground

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Speaker 1: for the birds. That night, as he went along in

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Speaker 1: the moonlight, he met a fox in his path. Hello,

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Speaker 1: said the fox, what are you looking for so late

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Speaker 1: at night in the forest. And he answered, I am

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Speaker 1: looking for the bird of the sweet saw, who will

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Speaker 1: show me the way to the healing waters. And the

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Speaker 1: fox said, I am the spirit of the man you

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Speaker 1: buried yesterday the forest path, And in return for your

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Speaker 1: kindness to me, I shall do a kindness to you.

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Speaker 1: You have always been good to the animals and the birds,

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Speaker 1: and you have never killed them needlessly, nor when you

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Speaker 1: did not require them for clothing or for food. And

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Speaker 1: you have always been careful of the flowers and the trees,

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Speaker 1: and you have often protected them from harm. So now

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Speaker 1: they want to be good to you. And I am

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Speaker 1: going to guide you. But first you must rest, for

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Speaker 1: you are tired from your long journey. Then the young

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Speaker 1: man lay down to sleep, and the fox stood guard

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Speaker 1: beside him. As he slept, he dreamed, and in his

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Speaker 1: dream he saw his wife, pale and thin and worn.

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Speaker 1: As he looked, he heard her singing a song of

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Speaker 1: wonderful melody. Then he heard a waterfall rippling near him,

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Speaker 1: and it said, seek me, a warrior, and when you

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Speaker 1: find me, your wife shall live, for I am the

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Speaker 1: healing waters. In the morning, the fox led him but

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Speaker 1: a short distance through the forest, and on the branch

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Speaker 1: of a tree, he heard a bird singing a song

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Speaker 1: of wonderful melody, just as he had heard in his

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Speaker 1: dream the night before. He knew now that this was

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Speaker 1: the bird of the sweet song of which the old

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Speaker 1: woman in the forest had spoken. Then, as he listened,

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Speaker 1: he heard the sound of a waterfall rippling not far away.

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Speaker 1: He searched for it, but he could not find it,

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Speaker 1: and fox said, you must seek it. You must not despair.

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Speaker 1: It will not come to you unless you search. So

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Speaker 1: he searched again, and soon he thought he heard a

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Speaker 1: voice speaking beneath his feet. Release us, it called, set

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Speaker 1: us free, and your wife and your people shall be saved.

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Speaker 1: He seized a sharp stick and dug rapidly into the

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Speaker 1: earth where he heard the voice. He worked eagerly and quickly,

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Speaker 1: and he had not dug far when the spring gushed

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Speaker 1: forth and boiled upwards, carrying to the world its healing power,

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Speaker 1: and the young man knew that at last he had

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Speaker 1: found the cure for his ills. He plunged into the

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Speaker 1: spring and bathed himself in the water, and all his

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Speaker 1: weariness left him, and he was strong again. Then the

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Speaker 1: young man molded from the soft earth a large pot.

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Speaker 1: He baked it in the fire until it was quite hard.

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Speaker 1: Now said the fox spirit, I will leave you. Your

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Speaker 1: kindness has been rewarded. You will need me no more,

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Speaker 1: for you have found the healing waters. And he disappeared

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Speaker 1: as mysteriously as he had come. The young man filled

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Speaker 1: his clay pot with the sparkling water and hastened back

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Speaker 1: to his home, running through the forest with the speed

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Speaker 1: of the wind because of his renewed energy. When he

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Speaker 1: reached his native village, the people met him with sad faces,

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Speaker 1: for the plague was still raging, and they told him

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Speaker 1: that his young wife was about to pass to the

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Speaker 1: land of shadows. But he hurried to his home, and

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Speaker 1: he forced some of the healing waters between his wife's

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Speaker 1: parched lips and bathed her hands and her brow until

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Speaker 1: she fell into a deep slumber. He watched by her

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Speaker 1: side until she awoke, and when sleep left her, she

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Speaker 1: was well again. Then, with his healing waters, he cured

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Speaker 1: all the people in the village, and the cruel plague

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Speaker 1: left them, and there were no more sicknesses in the land.

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Speaker 1: And since that time no plague has spread among his tribe.

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Speaker 1: In this way, the mineral springs, the places of healing waters,

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Speaker 1: came upon the earth, bearing health and happiness wherever they rise,

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Speaker 1: and accompanied always by the songs of birds. School to school,