1 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: Hello friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. This story 2 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:20,279 Speaker 1: was originally published in sleep Tight Premium. To listen to 3 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: more stories like this, please visit sleep Tightpremium dot com 4 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: and subscribe that's sleep Tightpremium dot com. Thank you. This 5 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: story is about a seedling fur. When he is growing, 6 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: he notices the mother fur has a bend in her trunk, 7 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: and he doesn't understand a fur tree is meant to 8 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: be straight and tall. He says he will never have 9 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: a bend in his trunk and continues to grow. When 10 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: he is growing up, he continues to try and grow 11 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: as straight as he can, but as he ages, other 12 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:30,399 Speaker 1: things become more important. The crooked fur the Prince's pine 13 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:34,639 Speaker 1: is half as tall as the woodchuck that lives under 14 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: the brown boulder, and the seedling fur, in his first season, 15 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: was as tall as the Prince's pine, so for the 16 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: time they made the most of each other's company. The 17 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: woodchuck and the Prince's pine were never to be any taller, 18 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: but the silver fur was to keep on growing as 19 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: long as he stood in the earth and drew sap. 20 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,840 Speaker 1: In his second season, which happened to be a good 21 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: growing year, the fir was as tall as the woodchuck, 22 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: and began to look about him. The forest of silver 23 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:28,360 Speaker 1: firs grew on a hill slope up from a watercourse, 24 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: as far as the borders of the long leafed pines. 25 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,480 Speaker 1: Where the trees stood close together. The earth was brown 26 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: with the litter of a thousand years, and the little 27 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: gray hawks hunted in their green, windy glooms. In the 28 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: open spaces there were thickets of meadow, sweet fireweed, monks, 29 00:02:56,200 --> 00:03:06,359 Speaker 1: hood and culumbine, with saplings and seedlings in between. When 30 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: the fur, which was as tall as the woodchuck, had 31 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: grown a year or two longer, he made a discovery. 32 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 1: All the firs on the hill slope were crooked. Their 33 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: trunks bulged out at the base toward the downward pitch 34 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,080 Speaker 1: of the hill. And it is the proper destiny of 35 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:37,840 Speaker 1: fir trees to be straight. They should be straight, said 36 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: the seedling fur. I feel it in my fibers that 37 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: a fir tree should be straight. He looked up at 38 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: the fir mother, very far above him, on her way 39 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: to the sky, with the sun and the wind in 40 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:59,240 Speaker 1: her star built boughs. I shall be straight, said the 41 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: seedling fur. Ah, do not be too sure of it, 42 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: said the fur mother. But for all that, the seedling 43 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: Fir was very sure, and when the snow tucked him 44 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,039 Speaker 1: in for the winter, he took a long time to 45 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: think about it. The snows are wonderfully deep in the 46 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: canyon of the silver firs, from where they gather in 47 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: the upper air. The fur mother shakes them lightly down, 48 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: packing so softly and so warm that the seedlings do 49 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:46,799 Speaker 1: not mind. About the time the fur had grown tall 50 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: enough to be called the sapling, he made another discovery. 51 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: The fur mother also had a crooked trunk. The sapling 52 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: was greatly shocked. He hardly liked to speak of it. 53 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: To the fir mother. He remembered his old friend, the 54 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: Prince's Pine, but he had so outgrown her that there 55 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 1: was really no comfort in trying to make himself understood. 56 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:21,599 Speaker 1: So he spoke to the woodchuck. The woodchuck was no 57 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: taller than he used to be, but when he climbed 58 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: up on the brown boulder above his house, he was 59 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: on a level with the sapling fur And though he 60 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,359 Speaker 1: was not much of a talker, he was a great 61 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:44,480 Speaker 1: thinker and had opinions. Really, said the fir, I hardly 62 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: like to speak of it. But you are such an 63 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: old friend. Do you see what a crook the fir 64 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,320 Speaker 1: mother has in her trunk. We firs, you know, were 65 00:05:55,360 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: intended to be straight, that said the woodchuck is on 66 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: account of the snow. But oh, my friend, said the sapling, 67 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: you must be mistaken. The snow is soft and comfortable 68 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: and braces one up. I ought to know, for I 69 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: spend whole winters in it, er said the woodchuck crossly 70 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: well for you that you do, or I should have 71 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:33,479 Speaker 1: eaten you off by now. After this, the little fir 72 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: kept his thoughts to himself. He was very much afraid 73 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,920 Speaker 1: of the woodchuck, And there is nothing a young fur 74 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,599 Speaker 1: fear so much as being eaten before he has a 75 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: chance to bear combs. But in fact the woodchuck spent 76 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: the winter under the snow himself. He went into his 77 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: house and shut the door when the first feel of 78 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: snow was in the air, and did not come out 79 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: until green things began to grow in the cleared spaces. 80 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: Not many winters after that, the fir was sufficiently tall 81 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,640 Speaker 1: to hold the green cross that all furs bear on 82 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: their topmost bough above the snow. Most of the winter 83 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 1: through now he began to learn a great many things. 84 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 1: The first of these was about the woodchuck. Really, that 85 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,920 Speaker 1: fellow is a great braggart, said the fir. Cannot think 86 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: how I came to be afraid of him. In those days, 87 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: the sapling saw the deer getting down in the flurry 88 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: of the first snows to the feeding grounds on the 89 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: lower hills. Saw the mountain sheep nodding their great horns 90 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: serenely in the shelter of a tall cliff through the 91 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: wildest storms in the spring. He saw the brown bears 92 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: shambling up the trails, ripping the bark off of the 93 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: trees to get at the worms and grubs that harbored there. Lastly, 94 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: he saw the woodchuck come out of his hole as 95 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 1: if nothing had ever happened. And now as the winters 96 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: came on, the fir began to feel the weight of 97 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: the snow. When it was wet and heavy and clung 98 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:51,200 Speaker 1: to its branches, the little fir shivered and moaned. Droop 99 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: your boughs, creaked the fir. Mother, Droop them, as I do, 100 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:01,880 Speaker 1: and the snow will fall. So the sapling drooped his 101 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: fan spread branches until they lay close to the trunk, 102 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: and the snow wreath slipped away and piled thickly about 103 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:16,720 Speaker 1: his trunk. But when the snow lay deep over all 104 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:21,480 Speaker 1: the slope, it packed and slid down toward the ravine 105 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: and pressed strongly against the sapling fur. Oh, I shall 106 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: be torn from my roots, he cried, I shall be 107 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: broken off. Bend, said the fir. Mother, Bend, and you 108 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:46,280 Speaker 1: will not break. So the young fir bent before the 109 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: snow until he was curved like a bow. But when 110 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: the spring came and the sap ran in his veins, 111 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,920 Speaker 1: he straightened his trunk anew and spread his branches in 112 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: the star shaped pattern. After all, said the sapling, it 113 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:06,960 Speaker 1: is not such a great matter to keep straight. It 114 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 1: only requires effort. So he went on drooping and bending 115 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: to the winter snows, growing strong and straight with the spring, 116 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: and rejoicing. About this time, the fur began to feel 117 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: the tingling in his upper branches. Something is going to happen, 118 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:37,200 Speaker 1: he said, something agreeable, in fact, for the tree was 119 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: fifty years old, and it was time to grow cones. 120 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: For fifty years a silver fur has nothing to do 121 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:54,760 Speaker 1: but to grow branches thrown out in annual circles. Everyone 122 00:10:55,160 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: in the shape of a cross. Then it grows cones 123 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: on the topmost whorl royal purple, and burnished gold on 124 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:12,439 Speaker 1: the ends of the branches, like Christmas candles. The sapling 125 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:16,079 Speaker 1: fir had only three in his first season of bearing, 126 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: but he was very proud of them. For now he 127 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:29,560 Speaker 1: was no longer a sapling but a tree. When one 128 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:32,719 Speaker 1: has to devote the whole of a long season to 129 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: growing cones, one has not much occasion to think of 130 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:42,720 Speaker 1: other things. By the time there were five rows of 131 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 1: cone bearing branches spread out broadly from the silver fir, 132 00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:53,240 Speaker 1: the woodchuck made a remark to the Prince's pine. It 133 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:56,640 Speaker 1: was not the same princess Pine, nor the same woodchuck, 134 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:00,600 Speaker 1: but one of his descendants and his parents had told 135 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: him the whole story. It seems to me, said the woodchuck, 136 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: that the fir tree is not going to be straight 137 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: after all. He never quite seems to recover from the 138 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:20,560 Speaker 1: winter snow. Ah, said the Princess Pine. I have always 139 00:12:20,559 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: thought it better to have your seeds ripe and put 140 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:27,079 Speaker 1: away underground before the snow comes. Then you do not 141 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 1: mind it at all. The woodchuck was right about the fir. 142 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: His trunk was beginning to curve toward the downward slope 143 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: of the hill with the weight of the drifts. And 144 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:48,800 Speaker 1: that went on until the curve was quite fixed in 145 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:52,400 Speaker 1: the ripened wood, And the fir tree could not have 146 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:57,679 Speaker 1: straightened up if he had wished. But to tell the truth, 147 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:03,080 Speaker 1: the fir tree did not wish. By the end of 148 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:07,840 Speaker 1: another fifty years, when he wagged his high top above 149 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:11,960 Speaker 1: the forest gloom, he grew to be quite proud of it. 150 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: There is nothing, he said to the sapling firs like 151 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: being able to endure hard times with a good appearance. 152 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,679 Speaker 1: I have seen a great deal of life. There are 153 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: no such snows now as there used to be. You 154 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: can see by the curve of my trunk what a 155 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 1: weight I have borne. But the young firs did not 156 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:46,200 Speaker 1: pay any attention to him. They had made up their 157 00:13:46,320 --> 00:14:05,839 Speaker 1: minds to grow up straight. Good night, sleep tightly.