Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Sleepy Stories. I'm your host, Lucy,
and my friends and I will be reading you a
sleepy bedtime story every week to relax you and to
help you to drift off into a RESTful sleep. From
time to time, we will also read you a relaxing,
peaceful meditation that will take you somewhere beautiful and calming.
Once we have read the stories, we will then read
them a second time, but this time they will be
ready even slower. This will help you to relax even more.
Before we begin, I would like you to close your
eyes and breathe in and out nice and deeply. Take
a few seconds to inhale, and then hold your breath
for a few seconds more, and then release and breathe out.
Do this a few times if you need to. While
you listen to the music and you listen to my voice,
give yourself time to let your body relax and your
mind settle. It's important that we allow time for us
to feel safe, cozy, and completely at ease. And now
it's time for this week's story.
Speaker 2: The Cat and the Cradle. In the early ages, when
our far off ancestors lived in the woods, ate acorns
slept in caves and dressed in the skins of wild animals.
They had no horses, cows, or cats. Their only pets
and helpers were dogs. The men and the dogs were
more like each other than they they are now. However,
they knew about bees, so the women gathered honey and
from it they made mead. Not having any sugar, the
children enjoyed tasting honey more than anything else, and it
was the only sweet thing they had. By and by,
cows were brought into the country, and the Dutch soil
being good for grass, the cows had plenty to eat.
When these animals multiplied, the people drank milk and learned
how to make cheese and butter, so the Dutch boys
and girls grew fat and healthy. The oxen were so
strong that they could pull logs of wood or draw
a plow. So little by little, the forests were cut
down and grassy meadows full of bright colored flowers took
their place. Houses were built, and the people were rich
and happy. Yet there were still many cruel men and
bad people in the land. Sometimes, too, floods came and
drowned the cattle and covered the fields with sand or
salt water. In such times, food was very scarce. Thus
it happened that not all the babies born could live
or every little child be fed. The baby girls especially,
were often left to die because war was common and
only boys that grew into strong warriors were wanted. It
grew to be a customed that families would hold a
council and decide whether a baby should be raised or not.
But if anyone should give the infant even a tiny
drop of milk or food of any kind, it was
allowed to live and grow up. If no one gave
it milk or honey, it died. No matter how much
a mother might love her baby, she was not allowed
to put milk to its lips if the grandmother or
elders forbade it. The young bride coming into her husband's
home always had to obey his mother, for she was
now as a daughter and one of the family. All
lived together in one house, and the grandmother ruled all
the women and girls that were under one roof. This
was the way of the world when our ancestors were
pagans and not always as kind to little babies as
our own mothers and fathers are now. Many times was
the the old grandmother angry when her son had taken
a wife and a girl was born. If the old
woman expected a grandson who should grow up and be
a fighter with sword and spear, and it turned out
to be a girl, she was mad as fire. Often
the pretty bride brought into the house had a hard
time of it with her husband's mother if she did not,
in time have a baby boy. In those days, a herman,
a warman, and a German were one and the same
word Now, when the Good missionaries came into Friesland, one
of the first of the families to receive the Gospel
was one named Altfred, with his bride, who also became
a Christian. Altfred helped the missionary to build a church.
By and by, a sweet little baby was born in
the family, and the parents were very happy. They loved
the little thing sent from God, as fathers and mothers
love their children now. But when someone went and told
the pagan grandmother that the new baby was a girl
instead of a boy, the old woman flew into a
rage and would have gone at once to get hold
of the baby and put it to death. Her lameness, however,
made her move slowly, and she could not find her crutch.
For the midwife who knew the bad temper of the grandmother,
had purposely hid it. The old woman was angry because
she did not want any more females in the big house,
where she thought there were already too many mouths to fill.
Food was hard to get get, and there were not
enough war men to defend the tribe. She meant to
get the new baby and throw it to the wolves.
The old grandmother was a pagan and still worshiped the
cruel gods that loved fighting. She hated the new religion
because it taught gentleness and peace. But the midwife, who
was a neighbor, feared that the old woman was malicious,
and she had hid her crutch. This she did so
that if the baby was a girl, she could save
its life. The midwife was a good woman who had
been taught that the great Creator loves little girls as
well as boys. So when the midwife heard the grandmother's
storm and rave while hunting for her crutch, she ran
first to the honey jar, her forefinger in it, and
put some drops of honey on the baby's tongue. Then
she passed it out the window to some women friends
who were waiting outside. She knew the law that if
a child tasted food, it must be allowed to live.
The kind women took the baby to their home and
fed it carefully. A hole was drilled in the small
end of a cow's horn, and the warm milk fresh
from the cow was allowed to fall drop by drop
into the baby's mouth. In a few days, the little
one was able to suck its breakfast slowly out of
the horn while one of the girls held it. So
the baby grew bigger every day, all the time it
was carefully hidden. The foolish old grandmother was foiled, for
she could ever find out where the baby girl was,
which all the time was growing strong and plump. Her
father secretly made her a cradle, and he and the
babe's mother came often to see their child. Everyone called
her Honigshay or little honey. Now about this time cats
were brought into the country, and the children made such
pets of them that some of the cows seemed to
be jealous of the attentions paid to pussy and the kittens.
These were the days when cows and people all lived
under one long roof. The children learned to tell the
time of day, whether it was morning, noon, or night,
by looking into the cat's eyes. These seemed to open
and shut very much as if they had doors. The
fat pussy, which was brought into the house where Honigje was,
seemed to be very fond of the little girl, and
the two the cat and the child played much together.
It was often said that the cat loved the baby
even more than her own kittens. Everyone called the affectionate
animal by the nickname de Belcha, which means little double,
because this puss was twice as loving as most cat
mothers are. When her own furry little babies were very young,
she carried them from one place to another in her mouth.
But this way of holding kittens she never tried on
the baby. She seemed to know better. Indeed, de Belche
often wondered why human babies were born so naked and helpless.
For at an age when her kittens could feed themselves
and run about and play with their tails and with
each other, Honigshey was not yet able to crawl. But
other dangers were in store for the little girl. One day,
when the men were out hunting and the women went
to the woods to gather nuts and acorns, a great
flood came. The waters washed away the houses so that
everything floated into the great river and then down towards
the sea. What had what would become of our baby?
So thought the parents of honig Jay, when they came
back to find the houses swept away and no sign
of their little daughter. De Belche, and her kittens and
all the cows were gone too. Now it had happened
that when the flood came and the house crashed down,
Baby was sound asleep. The cat, leaving its kittens that
were now pretty well grown up, leaped up and onto
the top of the cradle, and the two floated off together.
Pretty soon they found themselves left alone with nothing in
sight that was familiar, except one funny thing That was
a wooden shoe, in which was a fuzzy little yellow
chicken hardly four days old. It had been playing in
the shoe when the floods came and swept it off
from under the very beak of the old hen that,
with all her other chicks, was speedily drowned. On and
on the raging flood bore Baby and Puss until dark
night came down. Four hours more. They drifted until happily
the cradle was swept into an eddy in front of
a village. There it spun round and round, and might
soon have been borne into the greater flood, which seemed
to roar louder as the waters rose. Now a cat
can see sometimes in the night better even than in
the day, for the darker it becomes, the wider opened
the eyes of Puss. In bright sunshine. At noon, the
inside doors of the cat's eyes closed to a narrow slit,
while at night these doors open wide. That is the
reason why, in the days before clocks and watches were made,
the children could tell about the time of day by
looking at the cat's eyes. Sometimes they named their pussy clockhoog,
which means clockeye or bell eye, for bell clocks are
older than clocks with a dial, and because in Holland
the bells ring out the hours and quarter hours. Puss
looked up and saw the church tower looming up in
the dark. At once. She began to meow and catterwall
with all her might. She hoped that someone in one
of the houses near the river bank might catch the sound,
but none seemed to hear or heed. At last, when
Puss was nearly dead with howling, a light appeared at
one of the windows. This showed that someone was up
and moving. It was a boy who was named Dirk,
after the saint Theodoric, who had first long ago built
a church in the village. Then Puss opened her mouth
and lungs again and set up a regular catsk. This
wakened all other relatives in the village, and every tom
and kitty made answer, until there was a cat concert
of meals and catterwalls. The boy heard and rushed downstairs,
and opening the door, listened. The wind blew out his candle,
but the brave lad was guided by the sound which
Pussy made. Reaching the bank, he threw off his wooden clumps,
plunged into the boiling waters, and, seizing the cradle, towed
it ashore. Then he woke up his mother and showed
her his prize the way. That baby laughed and crowed
and patted the horn of milk and picked up its
toes in delight over the warm milk which was brought
was a joy to see near the hearth in the
middle of the floor to belche The puss was given
some straw for a bed, and after purring joyfully, was
soon like the baby, sound asleep. Thus the cat warned
the boy and the boy, save the baby that was
very welcome in a family where there were no girls,
but only a boy. When Honigshet grew up to be
a lovely woman, she looked as lovely as a princess,
and in the church was married to Dirk. It was
the month of April, and all the world was waking
to flowers when the wedding procession came out of the church,
and the air was sweet with the opening of the buds.
Before the next New Year's Day arrived, there lay in
the same cradle and put to sleep over the same rockers,
a baby boy. When they brought him to the font,
the good grandmother named him Luidager. He grew up to
be the great missionary, whose name in Friesland is even
today after a thousand years, a household word. It was
he who drove out bad fairies, vile enchanters, wicked spirits
and terrible diseases. Best of all, he banished I bite,
which was the name the people gave to witchcraft. Luidager
also made it hard for the naughty elves and sprites
that delude men. After this it was easy for all
the good spirits that live in kind hearts and noble
lives to multiply and prosper. The wolves were driven away
or killed off and became very few, while the cattle
and sheep multiplied until everybody could have woolen coat, and
there was a cow to every person in the land.
But the people still suffered from the floods that from
time to time drowned the cattle and human beings, and
the ebb tides that carried everything out to sea. Then
the good missionary taught the men how to build dikes
that kept out the ocean and made the water of
the river stay between the banks. The floods became fewer
and fewer, and at last rarely happened. Then Santa Claus
arrived to keep alive in the hearts of the people
the spirit of love and kindness and good cheer forever.
At last, when a hundred years had passed away, honig
Je once the girl baby, and then the dear old
lady who was nine to everybody and prepared the way
for Santa Claus, died. Then also de Belcher, the cat
that had nine lives in one, died with her. They
buried the old lady under the church floor and stuffed
the pussy that everybody kittens, boys, girls, and people loved
by and by. When the cat's tail and fur fell
to pieces, and ears tumbled off, and its glass eyes
dropped out, a skillful artist chiseled a statue of de Belcher,
which still stands over the tomb in the church. Every
year on Santa Claus Day, December sixth, the children put
a new collar around its neck and talk about the
cat that saved a baby's life, the end, the cat
and the cradle. In the early ages, when our far
off ancestors lived in the woods ate acorns, slept in caves,
and dressed in the skins of wild animals, they had
no horses, cows, or cats. Their only pets and helpers
were dogs. The men and the dogs were more like
each other than they are now. However, they knew about bees,
so the women gathered honey and from it they made mead.
Not having any sugar, the children enjoyed tasting honey more
than anything else, and it was the only sweet thing
they had. By and by, cows were brought into the country,
and the Dutch soil being good for grass, the cows
had plenty to eat. When these animals multiplied, the people
drank milk and learned how to make cheese and butter.
So the Dutch boys and girls grew fat and healthy.
The oxen were so strong that they could pull logs
of wood or draw a plow. So little by little,
the forests were cut down and grassy meadows full of
bright colored flowers took their place. Houses were built, and
the people were rich and happy. Yet there were still
many cruel men and bad people in the land. Sometimes, too,
floods came and drowned the cattle and covered the field
with sand or salt water. In such times, food was
very scarce. Thus it happened that not all the babies
born could live or every little child be fed. The
baby girls especially, were often left to die because war
was common, and only boys that grew into strong warriors
were wanted. It grew to be a customed that families
would hold a council and decide whether a baby should
be raised or not. But if anyone should give the
infant even a tiny drop of milk or food of
any kind, it was allowed to live and grow up.
If no one gave it milk or honey, it died.
No matter how much a mother might love her baby,
she was not allowed to put milk to its lips,
the grandmother or elders forbade it. The young bride coming
into her husband's home always had to obey his mother,
for she was now as a daughter and one of
the family. All lived together in one house, and the
grandmother ruled all the women and girls that were under
one roof. This was the way of the world when
our ancestors were pagans, and not always as kind to
little babies as our own mothers and fathers are now.
Many times was the old grandmother angry when her son
had taken a wife and a girl was born. If
the old woman expected a grandson who should grow up
and be a fighter with sword and spear, and it
turned out to be a girl, she was mad as fire.
Often the pretty bride brought into the house had a
hard time of it with her husband's mother if she
did not in time have a baby boy. In those days,
a herman, a warman, and a German were one and
the same word Now. When the Good missionaries came into Friesland,
one of the first of the families to receive the
Gospel was one named Altfred with his bride, who also
became a Christian. Altfred helped the missionary to build a church.
By and by, a sweet little baby was born in
the family, and the parents were very happy. They loved
the little thing sent from God, as fathers and mothers
love their children now. But when some one went and
told the pagan grandmother that the new baby was a
girl instead of a boy, the old woman flew into
a rage and would have gone at once to get
hold of the baby and put it to death. Her lameness, however,
made her move slowly, and she could not find her
crutch for the midwife, who knew the bad temper of
the grandmother, had purposely hid it. The old woman was
angry because she did not want any more females in
the big house, where she thought there were already too
many mouths to fill. Food was hard to get, and
there were not enough war men to defend the tribe.
She meant to get the new baby and throw it
to the wolves. The old grandmother was a pagan and
still worshiped the cruel gods that loved fighting. She hated
the new religion because it taught gentleness and peace. But
the midwife, who was a neighbor, feared that the old
woman was malicious, and she had hid her crutch. This
she did so that if the baby was a girl,
she could save its life. The midwife was a good
woman who had been taught that the great Creator loves
little girls as well as boys. So when the midwife
heard the grandmother's storm and rave while hunting for her crutch,
she ran first to the honey jar, dipped her forefinger
in it, and put some drops of honey on the
baby's tongue. Then she passed it out the window to
some women friends who were waiting outside. She knew the
law that if a child tasted food, it must be
allowed to live. The kind women took the baby to
their home and fed it carefully. A hole was drilled
in the small end of a cow's horn, and the
warm milk fresh from the cow was allowed to fall
drop by drop into the baby's mouth. In a few days,
the little one was able to suck its breakfast slowly
out of the horn while one of the girls held it.
So the baby grew bigger every day. All the time
it was carefully hidden. The foolish old grandmother was foiled,
for she could never find out where the baby girl was,
which all the time was growing strong and plump. Her
father secretly made her a cradle, and he and the
babe's mother came often to see their child. Everyone called
her Honigshey, or little Honey. Now about this time cats
were brought into the country, and the children made such
pets of them that some of the cows seemed to
be jealous of the attentions paid to Pussy and the kittens.
These were the days when cows and people all lived
under one long roof. The children learned to tell the
time of day, whether it was morning, noon, or night,
by looking into the cat's eyes. These seemed to open
and shut very much as if they had doors. The
fat pussy, which was brought into the house where Honigget was,
seemed to be very fond of the little girl, and
the two the cat and the child played much together.
It was often said that the cat loved the baby
even more than her own kittens. Every One called the
affectionate animal by the nickname the bell jay, which means
little double, because this puss was twice as loving as
most cat mothers are. When her own furry little babies
were very young, she carried them from one place to
another in her mouth, but this way of holding kittens,
she never tried on the baby. She seemed to know better. Indeed,
de Belche often wondered why human babies were born so
naked and helpless. For at an age when her kittens
could feed themselves and run about in play with their
tails and with each other, honig Jay was not yet
able to crawl. But other dangers were in store for
the little girl. One day, when the men were out
hunting and the women went to the woods to gather
nuts and acorns, a great flood came. The waters washed
away the houses, so that everything floated into the great
river and then down towards the sea. What had what
would become of our baby? So thought the parents of Honokje,
when they came back to find the houses swept away
and no sign of their little daughter. To Belche and
her kittens and all the cows were gone too. Now
it had happened that when the flood came and the
house crashed down, baby was sound asleep. The cat, leaving
its kittens that were now pretty well grown up, leaped
up and onto the top of the cradle, and the
two floated off together. Pretty Soon they found themselves left
alone with nothing in sight that was familiar except to
one funny thing. That was a wooden shoe, in which
was a fuzzy little yellow chicken hardly four days old.
It had been playing in the shoe when the floods
came and swept it off from under the very beak
of the old hen that, with all her other chicks,
was speedily drowned. On and on the raging flood bore
Baby and Puss until dark night came down. Four hours more.
They drifted until happily the cradle was swept into an
eddy in front of a village. There it spun round
and round, and might soon have been borne into the
greater flood, which seemed to roar louder as the waters rose.
Now a cat can see sometimes in the night better
even than in the day, for the darker it becomes,
the wider opened the eyes of Puss in bright sunshine
at noon, the inside doors of the cat's eyes closed
to a narrow slit, while at night these doors open wide.
That is the reason why, in the days before clocks
and watches were made, the children could tell about the
time of day by looking at the cat's eyes. Sometimes
they named their pussy clockhoog, which means clockeye or bell eye,
for bell clocks are older than clocks with a dial,
and because in Holland the bells ring out the hours
and quarter hours. Puss looked up and saw the church
tower looming up in the dark. At once she began
to meow and catterwall with all her might. She hoped
that someone in one of the houses near the river
bank might catch the sound, but none seemed to hear
or heed. At last, when Puss was nearly dead with howling,
a light appeared at one of the windows. This showed
that someone was up and moving. It was a boy
who was named Dirk, after the saint Theodoric, who had
first long ago built a church in the village. Then
Puss opened her mouth and lungs again and set up
a regular cat scream. This wakened all other relatives in
the village, and every tom and kitty made answer, until
there was a cat concert of mews and catterwalls. The
boy heard and rushed downstairs, and opening the door, listened
The wind blew out his candle, but the brave lad
was guided by the sound which Pussy made. Reaching the bank,
he threw off his wooden clumps plunged into the boiling waters,
and seizing the cradle, towed it ashore. Then he woke
up his mother and showed her his prize. The way
that baby laughed and crowed and patted the horn of
milk and picked up its toes in delight over the
warm milk which was brought was a joy to see
near the hearth in the middle of the floor to belchee.
The puss was given some straw for a bed, and
after purring joyfully, was soon like the baby, sound asleep.
Thus the cat warned the boy, and the boy save
the baby. That was very welcome in a family where
there were no girls, but only a boy. When Honigshet
grew up to be a lovely woman, she looked as
lovely as a princess, and in the church was married
to Dirk. It was the month of April, and all
the world was waking to flowers when the wedding procession
came out of the church, and the air was sweet
with the opening of the buds. Before the next New
Year's day arrived, there lay in the same cradle and
put to sleep over the same rockers a baby boy.
When they brought him to the font. The good grandmother
named him Luidiger. He grew up to be the great missionary,
whose name in Friesland is even to day after a
thousand years, a household word. It was he who drove
out bad fairies, vile enchanters, wicked spirits and terrible diseases.
Best of all, he banished i bite, which was the
name the people gave to witchcraft. Luidager also made it
hard for the naughty elves and sprites that delude men.
After this it was easy for all the good spirits
that live in kind hearts and noble lives to multiply
and prosper. The wolves were driven away or killed off
and became very few, while the cattle and sheep multiplied
until everybody could have a woolen coat, and there was
a cow to every person in the land. But the
people still suffered from the floods that from time to
time drowned the cattle and human beings, and the ebb
tides that carried everything out to sea. Then the good
missionary taught the men how to build dikes that kept
out the ocean and made the water of the river
stay between the banks. The floods became fewer and fewer,
and at last rarely happened. Then Santa Claus arrived to
keep alive in the hearts of the people the spirit
of love and kindness and good cheer forever. At last,
when a hundred years had passed away, honig Jeay once
the girl baby, and then the dear old lady who
was kind to everybody and prepared the way for Santa Claus, died.
Then also de Belcher, the cat that had nine lives
in one, died with her. They buried the old lady
under the church floor and stuffed the pussy that everybody kittens, boys,
girls and people loved by and by. When the cat's
tail and fur fell to pieces, and ears tumbled off,
and its glass eyes dropped out, a skillful artist chiseled
a statue of De Belcher, which still stands over the
tomb in the church. Every year on Santa Claus Day,
December sixth, the children put a new collar around its
neck and talk about the cat that saved a baby's life.
The end sudd