Category
🛠️
Style de vieTranscription
00:00Musique d'ambiance
00:10Christopher Mouse pull the covers up high and snuggled them close round his head.
00:15There's no place that Christopher rather would be than right in his soft feather bed.
00:22One morning the postman peeked into his room. He knew he'd find Christopher there.
00:29The one mighty tooth that he blew in his flute made him jump wide awake in the air.
00:36I'm sorry I woke you, the postman explained, but I've something to tell that won't keep.
00:42I figured a fella could hear things awake much better than when he's asleep.
00:49They're having a carnival over in town, the regular annual affair,
00:54and every last field mouse for acres around has positively vowed he'd be there.
01:01There's going to be popcorn, balloons will be free, and fireworks shooting at night.
01:07That was as much as the postman had told when Christopher vanished from sight.
01:14Please Grandpa say yes, let's both of us go, just think of the fun it will be.
01:20We'll both of us ride on the merry-go-round with you on the horse beside me.
01:25We'll go, said his grandpa, but mind you one thing, we'll have to spend one night in town.
01:32So don't expect feather beds, fluffy like yours, or pillars stuffed full of goose down.
01:39Their journey was long so they each packed a lunch, not planning to stop before noon.
01:45But Christopher's bag was so heavy and, well, they ate several hours too soon.
01:57At last they arrived at the edge of the town, big banners hung over the street,
02:02and hanging on top of his granddaddy's back was Christopher Mouse with tired feet.
02:10Then after six bottles of cold soda pop and a hot dog with everything on,
02:15he thought he could feel just a slight stomach ache, but the tiredness was all gone.
02:25He rode fourteen times on the merry-go-round and would have stayed on there all night.
02:33Till Grandpa discovered the camel's two humps, held Christopher wedged in there tight.
02:40They both bought some taffy, the kind that you pull.
02:43They stretched it, they yanked it, and they jerked it.
02:48Till finally it looked like a real jumping rope.
02:51When Christopher tried it, it worked.
02:55He thought it was fun chewing real bubble gum.
02:58His mouth was as full as he'd dare.
03:02The very first bubbly blue was so big it lifted him right in the air.
03:08The ride on the train was the most fun of all, until for a practical joke,
03:14the engineer went through a tunnel full speed which covered their faces with smoke.
03:25They went to a place for some cold lemonade, but the door to get in was locked tight.
03:31Now that's a strange thing Grandpa thought to himself, to close up at this time of night.
03:38He reached in his pocket and pulled out his watch.
03:42It couldn't be that late, he knew.
03:45But his trusty old timepiece, which never was wrong, read exactly a quarter of two.
03:53Good gracious, said Grandpa, just look at the time.
03:57We'd better turn in right away.
04:00We'll head for the closest hotel in the town and try and find some place to stay.
04:07The first place they stopped had a sign on the door.
04:10We're sorry, no room here at all.
04:13They peeked in the window though, just to make sure, and saw twenty beds in the hall.
04:20The folks that were staying at Mousey's Motel were packed in just like sardines.
04:28A few more were sleeping as best they could in the pocket of Farmer Brown's jeans.
04:35Not far down the street was the Egg Box Hotel.
04:39It boasted a full dozen beds.
04:42When Grandpa and Christopher added them up, their total was twelve sleepyheads.
04:48They walked and they walked and they looked and they looked, but there wasn't a room to be found.
04:55And it both of them catched just a terrible cold if they had to sleep out on the ground.
05:02Hold on now, said Grandpa, I'll think of a place.
05:07Let me get in my best thinking pose.
05:11So Grandpa sat down, crossed his little short legs, placed a finger alongside his nose.
05:19He stayed there a minute, thinking real hard, then his eyes twinkled wide with delight.
05:26And what's wrong with staying in Farmer Brown's barn?
05:29Ha! We'll sleep in the hayloft tonight.
05:33The barn door was locked, but they didn't mind much.
05:37A knot hole worked out just as well.
05:40And up in the loft, Grandpa fashioned a bed just as good as in any hotel.
05:46The nice thing about beds made of straw, Grandpa said, is you can't get in wrong if you try.
05:53The head and the foot are exactly the same. Just jump in from any old side.
05:59But Christopher wasn't the type to just jump.
06:03It didn't look that good to him.
06:06He moved to what might have been close to the edge, then leaned back and sort of slid in.
06:15His head hit the bottom, he kicked up his feet, and straw piled up high in the air.
06:21And out of the mess came up, who do you guess?
06:26Yes, and with plenty of straw in his hair.
06:31The first thing he tried was to lie on his side.
06:34He had never seen straw stand that tall.
06:38It tickled his toes and it got in his nose, till he just couldn't stand it at all.
06:45When I lie down, the straw sticks me right in the back, clear through my new BVDs.
06:52And when I sit up, my hay fever's so bad, I have to lie down or I'll sneeze.
06:59So it's sit up and sneeze, or lie down and get stuck.
07:03If I stay here all night, I'll be dead.
07:06I hate this old barn and this old stickly straw.
07:10All I want is my own feather bed.
07:14Offer ditto, said Grandpa, it isn't that bad.
07:19And what's more, you're too big to cry.
07:23Then Grandpa leaned back on his own pile of straw.
07:28His face was turned up to the sky.
07:32I once heard a story about a straw bed and a field mouse no bigger than you.
07:39The story is mostly about the straw bed.
07:42They say every word of it's true.
07:46It happened one night, many long years ago, in the loft of a barn, just like this.
07:54His mom had just tucked him inside the straw bed.
07:58His cheek was still warm from her kiss.
08:02The straw bed he slept in was one that he had made, and to him was a wonderful thing.
08:10And though it was built in a most clumsy way, he felt it was fit for a king.
08:18He lay there a while in the still of the night, for maybe an hour or so,
08:24when all of a sudden he thought that he heard the sound of strange voices below.
08:31They spoke very softly and sounded so kind that he wasn't afraid, not at all.
08:39He ran to the edge and he would have peaked down, but he just hadn't grown quite that tall.
08:47He listened for a moment to hear what they'd say.
08:52He wondered just who they could be.
08:55Then figured he'd better go back for his mom.
08:58She's taller than me, she can see.
09:02She didn't say what, but the little mouse knew it was an important thing that she saw.
09:08For he'd never heard anyone talk quite so fast, or seen them pick up so much straw.
09:15It's cold down below, and they're on the bare ground.
09:19There's a place here and there even wet.
09:22Start gathering up every straw in the loft.
09:26They'll need every bit they can get.
09:29The little mouse didn't take time to ask who.
09:33He wasn't the type to just sit.
09:35If it's straw that they needed, it's straw they would have.
09:39And he'd get it there lickety-split.
09:43In no time at all, every straw in the loft had been carefully placed on the ground.
09:49But mom had decided that wasn't enough.
09:52Some more would just have to be found.
09:56The friendly old cow had a small pile of straw and was just about ready to bite.
10:02But the little mouse grabbed it just barely in time.
10:07The cow could go hungry tonight.
10:11Then all of a sudden, a mother hen woke to find that her straw nest was gone.
10:17She picked up the note that the little mouse wrote, which said he'd explain later on.
10:24He hoped that this last pile of straw was enough for whatever they needed it for.
10:30His mom looked below, shook her head, and said no, they would still need a little bit more.
10:39The little mouse stood by the side of his bed.
10:42It was a lot to decide all alone.
10:45Here was the last bit of straw in the barn, and the bed he had made for his own.
10:51His mom got so nervous, there wasn't much time.
10:55She had just finished sighing, oh dear.
10:59When the little mouse said, here's the straw for my bed, and I hope there's enough of it here.
11:08The straw from the bed that the little mouse made soon covered the last bit of ground.
11:14Then both of them waited as still as they could be.
11:17His mom heard the sound, the fiddle sound of a wee newborn babe.
11:25This was the first peek he'd had.
11:28The baby was sleeping on his pile of straw, and don't think that he wasn't glad.
11:37He turned to his mom and was just going to ask if she knew when the baby would cry.
11:43When out of the night through the window above came a pathway of light from the sky.
11:50A new shining star in the heavens above, the brightest he ever had seen.
11:56And three men on camels were headed this way.
11:59He wondered, what all does this mean?
12:04He never did know on that night long ago, his bed had been fit for a king.
12:10That Christ had been born on this first Christmas morn, that voices of angels did sing.
13:05Grandpa moved over his own pile of straw, the pillow part stacked in a heap.
13:11He'd have to lay quiet, he wouldn't dare snore, for Christopher Mouse was asleep.
13:20Grandpa moved over his own pile of straw, the pillow part stacked in a heap.
13:26He'd have to lay quiet, he wouldn't dare snore, for Christopher Mouse was asleep.
13:49THE END