Welcome to Forget-Me-Not Fairy Tales Bedtime Edition.
Classic stories for book lovers of all ages.
Don't worry about missing the action.
Just let your mind and body relax.
Each story is read slowly and softly two times with soothing sounds to help you drift off to sleep.
Before we start our story,
Let's prepare both mind and body.
It's time to let your mind be calm and let your body relax.
Breathe in and exhale.
Relax your mind.
Relax your body.
Place your worries or busy thoughts in my box.
I'll hold them for you.
Let sleep wrap around you like a warm gentle love.
It's your time to unwind,
To let go,
And enjoy the good story.
The Tale of Two Bad Mice Written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter Once upon a time,
There was a very beautiful doll's house.
It was red brick with white windows and it had real muslin curtains and a front door and a chimney.
It belonged to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane.
At least it belonged to Lucinda,
But she never ordered meals.
Jane was the cook,
But she never did any cooking because the dinner had been bought ready-made in a box full of shavings.
There were two red lobsters and a ham,
A fish,
A pudding,
And some pears and oranges.
They would not come off the plates,
But they were extremely beautiful.
One morning,
Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll's perambulator.
There was no one in the nursery and it was very quiet.
Presently,
There was a little scuffling,
Scratching noise in a corner near the fireplace where there was a hole under the scurrying board.
Tom Thumb put out his head for a moment and then popped it in again.
Tom Thumb was a mouse.
A minute afterwards,
Honka Monka,
His wife,
Put her head out too,
And when she saw that there was no one in the nursery,
She ventured out on the oilcloth under the coal box.
The doll's house stood at the other side of the fireplace.
Tom Thumb and Honka Monka went cautiously across the hearth rug.
They pushed the front door.
It was not fast.
Tom Thumb and Honka Monka went upstairs and peeped into the dining room.
Then they squeaked with joy.
Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table.
There were ten spoons,
Inlet knives and forks,
And two dolly chairs.
All so convenient.
Tom Thumb set to work at once to carve the ham.
It was a beautiful,
Shiny yellow streaked with red.
The knife crumpled up and hurt him.
He put his finger in his mouth.
It is not boiled enough.
It is hard.
You have a try,
Honka Monka.
Honka Monka stood up in her chair and chopped at the ham with another lead knife.
It's as hard as the hams at the cheese mongers,
Said Honka Monka.
The ham broke off the plate with a jerk.
It fell flat and rolled under the table.
Let it alone,
Said Tom Thumb.
Give me some fish,
Honka Monka.
Honka Monka tried every tin spoon in turn.
The fish was glued to the dish.
Then Tom Thumb lost his temper.
He put the ham in the middle of the floor and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel.
Bang,
Bang,
Smash,
Smash.
The ham flew all into pieces for underneath the shiny paint,
It was made of nothing but plaster.
Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Honka Monka.
They broke up the pudding,
The lobsters,
The pears,
And the oranges.
As the fish would not come off the plate,
They put it into the red hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen,
But it would not burn either.
Tom Thumb went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top.
There was no soot.
While Tom Thumb was up the chimney,
Honka Monka had another disappointment.
She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser labeled rice,
Coffee,
Sago.
But when she turned them upside down,
There was nothing inside except red and blue beads.
Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could,
Especially Tom Thumb.
He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom,
And he threw them out of the top floor window.
But Honka Monka had a frugal mind.
After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster,
She remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed.
With Tom Thumb's assistance,
She carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth rug.
It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse hole,
But they managed it somehow.
Then Honka Monka went back and fetched a chair,
A bookcase,
A birdcage,
And several small odds and ends.
The bookcase and the birdcage refused to go into the mouse hole.
Honka Monka left them behind the coal box and went to fetch a cradle.
Honka Monka was just returning with another chair when suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing.
The mice rushed back to their hole and the dolls came into the nursery.
What a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda.
Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared,
And Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled,
But neither of them made any remark.
The bookcase and the birdcage were rescued from under the coal box,
But Honka Monka has got the cradle and some of Lucinda's clothes.
She also has some useful pots and pans and several other things.
The little girl that the doll's house belonged to said,
I will get a doll dressed like a policeman.
But the nurse said,
I will set a mousetrap.
So that is the story of the two bad mice,
But they were not so very,
Very naughty after all,
Because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke.
He found a crooked sixpence under the hearth rug and upon Christmas Eve,
He and Honka Monka stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane.
And very early every morning,
Before anybody is awake,
Honka Monka comes with her dustpan and her broom to sweep the dolly's house.
Fairy tales contain many morals.
One lesson from this story is things and people are not always as they seem.
Someone who looks happy may feel sad and someone who looks bad may be nice.
If a nice person makes a mistake,
They will apologize.
And now it's time for Aesop's Fables.
The Belly and the Members Once upon a time,
The different parts of the human body began to grumble against the belly.
It's not fair,
Said the hands,
That we should do all the work while you sit idle in the middle enjoying everything that comes along.
Indeed,
Agreed the mouth,
I do all the chewing.
And for what?
Only to feed this lazy belly who does nothing at all.
And I,
Said the teeth,
Grind every morsel to bits.
Yet it is always the belly who reaps the reward.
So the hands,
The mouth,
And the teeth agreed upon a plan.
They would refuse to feed the belly any longer.
Let it shift for itself.
The hands would carry no food,
The mouth would not open,
And the teeth would not chew.
For a day or two,
The rebels held firm and felt quite proud of themselves.
But soon,
The hands began to tremble,
The mouth grew dry,
The teeth shattered,
And the legs could barely hold up the body.
Every part grew weak in faith.
At last,
The members understood what they had not seen before.
The belly,
In its quiet way,
Had been working all along,
Receiving the food,
Digesting it,
And sending nourishment through the body to every part of the body.
Without it,
They could not survive,
And without them,
It could not be fed.
And so,
They all went back to work together,
Each doing its part,
And the body was well again.
Moral of the story is,
We all must work together to live a healthy and happy life.
The Lion and the Mouse A lion lay asleep in the forest,
His great head resting on his paws.
A timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly and in her fright and haste to get away,
Ran across the lion's nose.
Roused from his nap,
The lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature.
Spare me,
Begged the poor mouse.
Please let me go,
And someday I will surely repay you.
The lion was much amused to think that a mouse could ever help him,
But he was generous and finally let the mouse go.
Some days later,
While stalking his prey in the forest,
The lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net.
Unable to free himself,
He filled the forest with his angry roaring.
The mouse knew the voice and quickly found the lion struggling in the net.
Running to one of the great ropes that bound him,
She gnawed it until it parted and soon the lion was free.
You laughed when I said I would repay you,
Said the mouse.
Now you see that even a mouse can help a lion.
The moral of the story is no matter if you are big or small,
We are all able to lend a helping hand.
The Miser A miser had buried his gold in a secret place in his garden.
Every day he went to the spot,
Dug up the treasure,
And counted it piece by piece to make sure it was all there.
He made so many trips that a thief who had been observing him guessed what it was the miser had hidden and one night quietly dug up the treasure and made off with it.
When the miser discovered his loss,
He was overcome with grief and despair.
He groaned and cried and tore his hair.
A passerby heard his cries and asked what had happened.
My gold!
Oh,
My gold!
Cried the miser wildly.
Someone has robbed me!
Your gold?
There?
In that hole?
Why did you put it there?
Why did you not keep it in the house where you could easily get it when you had to buy things?
Buy?
Screamed the miser angrily.
Why?
I never touched the gold.
I couldn't think of spending any of it.
The stranger picked up a large stone and threw it into the hole.
Well,
If that is the case,
He said,
Cover up that stone.
It is worth just as much to you as the treasure you lost.
The moral of the story is a possession is worth no more than the use we make of it.
Written and Illustrated by Beatrix Potter Once upon a time,
There was a very beautiful doll's house.
It was red brick with white windows and it had real muslin curtains and a front door and a chimney.
It belonged to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane.
At least it belonged to Lucinda,
But she never ordered meals.
Jane was the cook,
But she never did any cooking because the dinner had been bought ready made in a box full of shavings.
There were two red lobsters and a ham,
A fish,
A pudding and some pears and oranges.
They would not come off the plates,
But they were extremely beautiful.
One morning,
Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll's perambulator.
There was no one in the nursery and it was very quiet.
Presently,
There was a little scuffling,
Scratching noise in a corner near the fireplace where there was a hole under the scurrying board.
Tom Thumb put out his head for a moment and then popped it in again.
Tom Thumb was a mouse.
Minute afterwards,
Honka Monka,
His wife,
Put her head out too and when she saw that there was no one in the nursery,
She ventured out on the oilcloth under the coal box.
The doll's house stood at the other side of the fireplace.
Tom Thumb and Honka Monka went cautiously across the hearth rug.
They pushed the front door.
It was not fast.
Tom Thumb and Honka Monka went upstairs and peeped into the dining room.
Then they squeaked with joy.
Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table.
There were ten spoons and lead knives and forks.
And two dolly chairs.
All so convenient.
Tom Thumb set to work at once to carve the ham.
It was a beautiful shiny yellow streaked with red.
The knife crumpled up and hurt him.
He put his finger in his mouth.
It is not boiled enough.
It is hard.
You have a try,
Honka Monka.
Honka Monka stood up in her chair and chopped at the ham with another lead knife.
It's as hard as the hams at the cheese mongers,
Said Honka Monka.
The ham broke off the plate with a jerk and rolled under the table.
Let it alone,
Said Tom Thumb.
Give me some fish,
Honka Monka.
Honka Monka tried every tin spoon in turn.
The fish was glued to the dish.
Then Tom Thumb lost his temper.
He put the ham in the middle of the floor and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel.
Bang,
Bang,
Smash,
Smash.
The ham flew all into pieces for underneath the shiny paint it was made of nothing but plaster.
Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Honka Monka.
They broke up the pudding,
The lobsters,
The pears,
And the oranges.
As the fish would not come off the plate,
They put it into the red hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen.
But it would not burn either.
Tom Thumb went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top.
There was no soot.
While Tom Thumb was up the chimney,
Honka Monka had another disappointment.
She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser labeled rice,
Coffee,
Sago.
But when she turned them upside down,
There was nothing inside except red and blue bees.
Then those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could,
Especially Tom Thumb.
He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom,
And he threw them out of the top floor window.
But Honka Monka had a frugal mind.
After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster,
She remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed.
With Tom Thumb's assistance,
She carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth rug.
It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse hole,
But they managed it somehow.
Then Honka Monka went back and fetched a chair,
A bookcase,
A birdcage,
And several small odds and ends.
The bookcase and the birdcage refused to go into the mouse hole.
Honka Monka left them behind the coal box and went to fetch a cradle.
Honka Monka was just returning with another chair when suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing.
The mice rushed back to their hole and the dolls came into the nursery.
What a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda.
Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared,
And Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled,
But neither of them made any remark.
The bookcase and the birdcage were rescued from under the coal box,
But Honka Monka has got the cradle and some of Lucinda's clothes.
She also has some useful pots and pans and several other things.
The little girl that the doll's house belonged to said,
I will get a doll dressed like a policeman.
But the nurse said,
I will set a mousetrap.
So that is the story of the two bad mice,
But they were not so very,
Very naughty after all,
Because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke.
He found a crooked sixpence under the hearth rug and upon Christmas Eve,
He and Honka Monka stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane.
And very early every morning,
Before anybody is awake,
Honka Monka comes with her dustpan and her broom to sweep the dolly's house.
The end.
Fairy tales contain many morals.
One lesson from this story is,
Things and people are not always as they seem.
Someone who looks happy may feel sad and someone who looks bad may be nice.
If a nice person makes a mistake,
They will apologize.
And now it's time for Aesop's Fables.
The Belly and the Members Once upon a time,
The different parts of the human body began to grumble against the belly.
It's not fair,
Said the hands,
That we should do all the work while you sit idle in the middle enjoying everything that comes along.
Indeed,
Agreed the mouth.
I do all the chewing.
And for what?
I,
Said the teeth,
Grind.
The mouth and the teeth agreed upon a plan.
They would refuse to feed the belly any longer.
Let it shift for itself.
The hands would carry no food,
The mouth would not open,
And the teeth would not chew.
For a day or two,
The rebels held firm and felt quite proud of themselves.
But soon,
The hands began to tremble,
The mouth dry,
The teeth shattered,
And the legs could barely hold up the body.
Every part grew weak in faith.
At last,
The members understood what they had not seen before.
The belly,
In its quiet way,
Had been working all along,
Receiving the food,
Digesting it,
And sending nourishment through the body to every part of the body.
Without it,
They could not survive,
And without them,
They could not be fed.
And so,
They all went back to work together,
Each doing its part,
And the body was well again.
Moral of the story is,
We all must work together to live a healthy and happy life.
The Lion and the Mouse A lion lay asleep in the forest,
His great head resting on his paws.
A timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly and in her fright and haste to get away ran across the lion's nose.
Roused from his nap,
The lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature.
Spare me,
Begged the poor mouse,
Please let me go and someday I will surely repay you.
The lion was much amused to think that a mouse could ever help him,
But he was generous and finally let the mouse go.
Some days later,
While stalking his prey in the forest,
The lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net.
Unable to free himself,
He filled the forest with his angry roaring.
The mouse knew the voice and quickly found the lion struggling in the net.
Running to one of the great ropes that bound him,
She gnawed it until it parted and soon the lion was free.
You laughed when I said I would repay you,
Said the mouse.
Now you see that even a mouse can help a lion.
The moral of the story is no matter if you are big or small,
We are all able to lend a helping hand.
The Miser A miser had buried his gold in a secret place in his garden.
Every day he went to the spot,
Dug up the treasure,
And counted it piece by piece to make sure it was all there.
He made so many trips that a thief who had been observing him guessed what it was the miser had hidden and one night quietly dug up the treasure and made off with it.
When the miser discovered his loss,
He was overcome with grief and despair.
He groaned and cried and tore his hair.
A passerby heard his cries and asked what had happened.
My gold!
Oh,
My gold!
Cried the miser wildly.
Someone has robbed me!
Your gold?
There?
In that hole?
Why did you put it there?
Why did you not keep it in the house where you could easily get it when you had to buy things?
Buy?
Screamed the miser angrily.
Why?
I never touched the gold.
I couldn't think of spending any of it.
The stranger picked up a large stone and threw it into the hole.
Well,
If that is the case,
He said,
Cover up that stone.
It is worth just as much to you as the treasure you lost.
The moral of the story is a possession is worth no more than the use we make of it.
Thanks for listening,
My friend.
Sleep tight.
