1
00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:25,919
Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. Today, I

2
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: have a special message for two of our listeners. I'd

3
00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:34,000
Speaker 1: like to say a great, big happy birthday wish to

4
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:38,920
Speaker 1: Abe and Ollie, who are turning six years old tomorrow.

5
00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:43,160
Speaker 1: Happy birthday to you. I hope you have a very

6
00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 1: special day. This story is another Peter Rabbit tale where

7
00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 1: he and his friend Jimmy Skunk are having an argument

8
00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:04,759
Speaker 1: about how many animals can fly. They cannot agree on this,

9
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,360
Speaker 1: so they go to speak to Grandfather Frog, who always

10
00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:20,360
Speaker 1: has the answers how mister flying squirrel almost got wings.

11
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:29,480
Speaker 1: Jimmy Skunk and Peter Rabbit were having a dispute. It

12
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:34,200
Speaker 1: was a good natured dispute, but both Jimmy and Peter

13
00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:39,400
Speaker 1: are very decided in their opinions and neither would give

14
00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:45,360
Speaker 1: in to the other. Finally, they decided that as neither

15
00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:49,440
Speaker 1: could convince the other, they should leave it for Grandfather

16
00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:51,360
Speaker 1: Frog to decide.

17
00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:51,960
Speaker 2: Who was right.

18
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,160
Speaker 1: So they started straight away for the Smiling Pool, where

19
00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,880
Speaker 1: on his big Green Lily pat Grandfather Frog was enjoying

20
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:10,799
Speaker 1: the twilight and leading the Great Frog Chorus. Both agreed

21
00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:17,840
Speaker 1: that they would accept Grandfather Frog's decision. You see, each

22
00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:24,840
Speaker 1: was sure that he was right. When they reached the

23
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:30,240
Speaker 1: Smiling Pond, they found Grandfather Frog looking very comfortable and

24
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:36,200
Speaker 1: old and wise. Good evening, Grandfather Frog, I hope you

25
00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,880
Speaker 1: are feeling just as fine as you look, said Jimmy Skunk,

26
00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:47,079
Speaker 1: who never forgets to be polite. Right, I'm feeling very well,

27
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:52,080
Speaker 1: thank you, replied Grandfather Frog. What brings you to the

28
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:54,360
Speaker 1: Smiling Pool this fine evening?

29
00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,279
Speaker 2: He looked very hard.

30
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,959
Speaker 1: At Peter Rabbit, for he suspected that Peter had come

31
00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:06,160
Speaker 1: for a story, to get the wisest person of whom

32
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: we know to decide a matter on which Peter and

33
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:13,839
Speaker 1: I cannot agree. And who is there so wise as

34
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:22,800
Speaker 1: Grandfather Frog, replied Jimmy. Grandfather Frog looked immensely pleased. It

35
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:29,959
Speaker 1: always pleases him to be considered wise. He said gruffly.

36
00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,480
Speaker 1: You have a very smooth tongue, Jimmy Skunk, But what

37
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:40,160
Speaker 1: is this matter on which you cannot agree? How many

38
00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:41,520
Speaker 1: animals can fly?

39
00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:44,040
Speaker 2: Returned Jimmy.

40
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:51,160
Speaker 1: By way of answer, one, replied Grandfather Frog. I thought

41
00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:55,400
Speaker 1: everybody knew that litter the bat is the only animal

42
00:03:55,440 --> 00:04:01,000
Speaker 1: who can fly. You forget Timmy the fly squirrel, cried

43
00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:09,360
Speaker 1: Peter excitedly. That makes too Grandfather Frog shook his head. Peter, Peter,

44
00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:15,240
Speaker 1: whatever is the matter with those eyes of yours, he exclaimed,

45
00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,839
Speaker 1: They certainly are big enough. I wonder if you ever

46
00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:24,080
Speaker 1: will learn to use them. Half seeing is sometimes worse

47
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:29,000
Speaker 1: than not seeing at all. Jimmy cannot fly any more

48
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:29,720
Speaker 1: than I can.

49
00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:32,640
Speaker 2: What did I tell you?

50
00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:38,839
Speaker 1: Cried Jimmy Skunk triumphantly. But I've seen him fly lots

51
00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:43,800
Speaker 1: of times, persisted Peter. I guess that anyone who has

52
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:49,480
Speaker 1: envied him as often as I have ought to know, hm,

53
00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:51,160
Speaker 1: grunted Grandfather Frog.

54
00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,360
Speaker 2: I guess that's the trouble. There was so much.

55
00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,279
Speaker 1: Envy that it got into your eyes and you couldn't

56
00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:04,240
Speaker 1: see straight. And he is a bad thing. Jimmy Skunk chuckled.

57
00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,799
Speaker 1: Did you ever see him away from the trees, continued

58
00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:16,440
Speaker 1: Grandfather Frog, No, said Peter. Did you ever see him

59
00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:22,640
Speaker 1: cut circles in the air like flitter the bat? No,

60
00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:29,320
Speaker 1: replied Peter slowly. Of course not, retorted grandfather Frog. The

61
00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:34,640
Speaker 1: reason is because he doesn't fly. He hasn't any wings.

62
00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,039
Speaker 1: What he does do is to coast on the air.

63
00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:42,480
Speaker 1: He is the greatest jumper and coaster in the green

64
00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:49,719
Speaker 1: Forest coast on the air, exclaimed Peter, I never heard

65
00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:54,599
Speaker 1: of such a thing. There are many things you have

66
00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:00,080
Speaker 1: never heard of, replied Grandfather Frog. Sit down, Peter, and

67
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,800
Speaker 1: stop fidgeting, and I'll tell you a story. The very

68
00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,080
Speaker 1: word story was enough to make Peter forget everything else,

69
00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:14,120
Speaker 1: and he promptly sat down, with his big eyes fixed

70
00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:22,960
Speaker 1: on Grandfather Frog. It happened, began Grandfather Frog.

71
00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,040
Speaker 2: That way back in the.

72
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,159
Speaker 1: Beginning of things, there lived a very timid member of

73
00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:33,919
Speaker 1: the squirrel family, own cousin to mister Red Squirrel and

74
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,760
Speaker 1: mister Gray Squirrel, but not at all like them, for

75
00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:45,560
Speaker 1: he was very gentle and very shy. Perhaps this was

76
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,080
Speaker 1: partly because he was very small and was not big

77
00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,240
Speaker 1: enough or strong enough to fight his way as the

78
00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: others did. In fact, this little squirrel was so timid

79
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,240
Speaker 1: that he preferred to day out of sight during the

80
00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:06,880
Speaker 1: day when so many were about. He felt safer in

81
00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,920
Speaker 1: the dusk of evening, and so he used to wait

82
00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:14,480
Speaker 1: until jolly round Red mister Sun had gone to bed

83
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,640
Speaker 1: behind the Purple Hills before he ventured out to hunt

84
00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:24,280
Speaker 1: for his food. Then his quarrelsome cousins had gone to bed,

85
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,440
Speaker 1: and there was no one to drive him away when

86
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:32,760
Speaker 1: he found a feast of good things. But even at

87
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,280
Speaker 1: night there was plenty of danger. There was mister Owl

88
00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:42,800
Speaker 1: to be watched out for, and other night prowlers. In fact,

89
00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:47,120
Speaker 1: little mister squirrel didn't feel safe on the ground for

90
00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,160
Speaker 1: a minute, and so he kept to the trees as

91
00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:55,480
Speaker 1: much as possible. Of course, when the branches of one

92
00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,000
Speaker 1: tree reached to the branches of another tree, it was

93
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:03,480
Speaker 1: an easy mass to travel through the tree tops. But

94
00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,960
Speaker 1: every once in a while there would be open places

95
00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:11,280
Speaker 1: to cross, and many a fright did timid little mister

96
00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 1: squirrel have as he scampered across these open places. He

97
00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,960
Speaker 1: used to sit and watch old mister bat flying about

98
00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,960
Speaker 1: and wish that he had wings. Then he thought how

99
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,800
Speaker 1: foolish it was to wish for something he hadn't got

100
00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:34,560
Speaker 1: and couldn't have. The thing to do, said little mister

101
00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,520
Speaker 1: Squirrel to himself, is to make the most of what

102
00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:38,520
Speaker 1: I have got.

103
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:39,760
Speaker 2: Now.

104
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:44,400
Speaker 1: I am a pretty good jumper, but if I keep jumping,

105
00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,360
Speaker 1: perhaps I can learn to jump better than I do.

106
00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,920
Speaker 1: So every night mister Squirrel used to go off by

107
00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:58,000
Speaker 1: himself where he was sure no one would see him,

108
00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: and practice jumping. He would climb an old stump and

109
00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,840
Speaker 1: then jump as far as he could. Then he would

110
00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:12,800
Speaker 1: do it all over again, ever so many times, and

111
00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:16,199
Speaker 1: after a little he found that he went farther, quite

112
00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,320
Speaker 1: a little farther than when he began. Then one night

113
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:25,720
Speaker 1: he made a discovery. He found that by spreading his

114
00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,960
Speaker 1: arms and legs out just as far as possible, and

115
00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:34,160
Speaker 1: making himself as flat as he could, he could go

116
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,160
Speaker 1: almost twice as far as he had been able to

117
00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:37,920
Speaker 1: go before.

118
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:44,880
Speaker 2: And he landed a great deal easier. It was like.

119
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:49,840
Speaker 1: Sliding down on the air. It was great fun, and

120
00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:54,000
Speaker 1: pretty soon he was spending all his spare time doing it.

121
00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:02,320
Speaker 1: One moonlight night, old Old Mother Nature happened along and

122
00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:06,199
Speaker 1: sat down on a log to watch him. Little mister

123
00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:09,960
Speaker 1: squirrel didn't see her. When at last she asked him

124
00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:14,280
Speaker 1: what he was doing, he was so surprised and confused

125
00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:19,760
Speaker 1: that he could hardly find his tongue. At last he

126
00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:21,920
Speaker 1: told her that he was trying to learn to jump

127
00:10:21,960 --> 00:10:25,280
Speaker 1: better so that he might take better care of himself.

128
00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:31,200
Speaker 1: The idea pleased Old Mother Nature. You know, she is

129
00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:35,319
Speaker 1: always pleased when she finds people trying to help themselves.

130
00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:42,720
Speaker 1: That's a splendid idea. She said, I'll help you. I

131
00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:47,000
Speaker 1: will make you the greatest jumper in the green forest.

132
00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,679
Speaker 1: Then she gave to little mister squirrel something almost but

133
00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:59,439
Speaker 1: not quite like wings. Between his front legs and hind

134
00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,320
Speaker 1: legs on each side. She stretched a piece of skin

135
00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:07,040
Speaker 1: that folded right down against his body when he was

136
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:12,200
Speaker 1: walking or running, so as to hardly show, and wasn't

137
00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:19,040
Speaker 1: in the way at all. Now, she said, climb that

138
00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,680
Speaker 1: tall tree over yonder, clear to the top, and then

139
00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:26,880
Speaker 1: jump with all your might for that tree over there

140
00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 1: across the open place. It was ten times as far

141
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,880
Speaker 1: as little mister squirrel ever had jumped before, and the

142
00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:40,320
Speaker 1: tree was so tall that he felt sure that he

143
00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:45,000
Speaker 1: would be hurt when he struck the ground. He was afraid,

144
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:51,120
Speaker 1: very much afraid, But Old Mother Nature had told him

145
00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,400
Speaker 1: to do it. He knew that he ought to trust her,

146
00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 1: so he climbed the tall tree. It was a frightful

147
00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:02,880
Speaker 1: distance down to the ground, and that other tree was

148
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,240
Speaker 1: so far away that it was silly to even think

149
00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:14,120
Speaker 1: of reaching it. Jump, commanded Old Mother Nature. Little mister

150
00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:19,439
Speaker 1: squirrel gulped very hard, trying to swallow his fear. Then

151
00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:24,280
Speaker 1: he jumped with all his might, and just as he

152
00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:28,920
Speaker 1: had taught himself to do, spread himself out as flat

153
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:35,360
Speaker 1: as he could. Just imagine how surprised he was and

154
00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:40,160
Speaker 1: how tickled when he'd just coasted down on the air,

155
00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:45,160
Speaker 1: clear across the open place and landed as lightly as

156
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:51,200
Speaker 1: a feather on the foot of that distant tree. You

157
00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:55,360
Speaker 1: see the skin between his legs when he spread them

158
00:12:55,400 --> 00:13:00,960
Speaker 1: out had kept him from falling straight down. Of course,

159
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,160
Speaker 1: if he hadn't jumped with all his might, as Old

160
00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:07,680
Speaker 1: Mother Nature had told him to, even though he thought

161
00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:11,240
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be of any use, he wouldn't have reached

162
00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:17,320
Speaker 1: that other tree. He was so delighted that he wanted

163
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:21,040
Speaker 1: to do it right over again, but he didn't forget

164
00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:28,599
Speaker 1: his manners. He first thanked Old Mother Nature. She smiled,

165
00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:33,040
Speaker 1: See that you keep out of danger, or that is

166
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,800
Speaker 1: why I have made you the greatest jumper in the

167
00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:45,640
Speaker 1: green forest, she said, Little mister squirrel did people who

168
00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:50,880
Speaker 1: like Peter did not use their eyes thought that he

169
00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:56,320
Speaker 1: could fly, and he was called the flying squirrel. He

170
00:13:56,640 --> 00:14:02,560
Speaker 1: was the great great, ever so great grandfather of Timmy,

171
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:08,559
Speaker 1: whom you both know. And Timmy doesn't really fly at all,

172
00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:15,040
Speaker 1: does he asked Jimmy Skunk, certainly not. He jumps and

173
00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:20,520
Speaker 1: slides on the air, replied Grandfather Frog. What did I

174
00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:28,600
Speaker 1: tell you, cried Jimmy triumphantly to Peter. Well, anyway, it's

175
00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:33,200
Speaker 1: the next best thing to flying. I wish I could

176
00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:43,400
Speaker 1: do it, replied Peter. And that is the end of

177
00:14:43,440 --> 00:15:08,080
Speaker 1: the story. Good night, sleep tight. Don't day take away,

178
00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:42,520
Speaker 1: I don't day take away. H