Good evening children,
I hope you've had a wonderful day.
I hope you're lying in your bed and ready for a bedtime story.
So make sure your head's on your pillow,
Your eyes are closed,
You're breathing in and breathing out.
And you can put your hands maybe next to your sides or on your chest and let us begin the tale of Benjamin Bunny.
One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank.
He pricked his ears and listened to the trit-trit,
Trit-trit of a pony.
A gig was coming along the road.
It was driven by Mr MacGregor and beside him sat Mrs MacGregor in her best bonnet.
As soon as they had passed little Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road and set off with a hop,
Skip and a jump to call upon his relations who lived in the wood at the back of Mr MacGregor's garden.
That wood was full of rabbit holes and in the neatest,
Sandiest hole of all were his cousins,
Flopsy,
Mopsy,
Cottontail and Peter.
Old Mrs Rabbit was a widow.
She earned her living by knitting rabbit wool mittens and muffets.
I once bought a pair at a bazaar.
She also sold herbs and rosemary tea and rabbit tobacco,
Which is what we call lavender.
Little Benjamin did not very much want to see his aunt.
He came around the back of the fir tree and nearly tumbled upon the top of his cousin Peter.
Peter was sitting by himself.
He looked poorly and was dressed in a red cotton pocket handkerchief.
Peter said little Benjamin in a whisper,
Who has got your clothes?
Peter replied,
The scarecrow in Mr MacGregor's garden and described how he'd been chased about the garden and dropped his shoes and coat.
Little Benjamin sat down beside his cousin and assured him that Mr MacGregor had gone out in a gig and Mrs MacGregor also and certainly for the day because she was wearing her best bonnet.
Peter said he hoped that it would rain.
At this point,
Old Mrs Rabbit's voice was heard inside the rabbit hole calling,
Cotton tail,
Cotton tail,
Fetch some chamomile.
Peter said he thought he might feel better if he went for a walk.
They went away hand in hand and got upon the flat top of the hill at the bottom of the wood.
From here,
They looked down into Mr MacGregor's garden.
Mrs Coats and shoes were plainly to be seen upon the scarecrow,
Topped with an old tamar shanta of Mr MacGregor's.
That's a hat to those of you who don't know.
Little Benjamin said it spoils people's clothes to squeeze under a gate.
The proper way to get in is to climb down a pear tree.
Peter fell down head first,
But it was of no consequence as the bed below was newly raked and quite soft.
It had been sewn with lettuces.
They left a great many odd little foot marks all over the bed,
Especially little Benjamin who was wearing clogs.
Little Benjamin said that the first thing to be done was to get back Peter's clothes in order that they might be able to use the pocket handkerchief.
They took off to the scarecrow.
There had been rain during the night,
There was water in the shoes and the coat was somewhat shrunk.
Benjamin tried on the tamar shanta,
But it was too big for him.
Then he suggested that they should fill the pocket handkerchief with onions as at all present for his aunt.
Peter did not seem to be enjoying himself.
He kept hearing noises.
Benjamin on the contrary was perfectly at home and ate a lettuce leaf.
He said that he was in the habit of coming to the garden with his father to get lettuces for their Sunday dinner.
The name of little Benjamin's papa was old Mr.
Benjamin Bunny.
The lettuces certainly were very fine.
Peter did not eat anything.
He said he should like to go home.
Presently he dropped half the onions.
Little Benjamin said that it was not possible to get back up the old pear tree with a load of vegetables.
He led the way boldly towards the other end of the garden.
They went along a little walk on planks under a sunny red brick wall.
The mice sat on the doorsteps cracking cherry stones.
They winked at Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin Bunny.
Presently Peter let the pocket handkerchief go again.
They got amongst the flower pots and frame tubs.
Peter heard noises worse than ever.
His eyes were big as lollipops.
He was a step or two in front of his cousin when he suddenly stopped.
This is what those little rabbits saw around the corner.
Little Benjamin took one look and in half a minute or less he hid himself and Peter and the onions under a large basket.
The cat got up and stretched himself and came and sniffed at the basket.
Perhaps he liked the smell of onions.
Anyway,
He sat down upon the top of the basket.
He sat there for five hours.
I cannot draw you a picture of Peter and Benjamin under the basket because it was quite dark and because the smell of onions was fearful.
It made Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin cry.
The sun got round behind the wood and it was quite late in the afternoon but still the cat sat upon the basket.
At length there was a pitter-patter,
Pitter-patter and some bits of mortar fell from the wall above.
The cat looked up and saw old Mr Benjamin Bunny prancing along the top of the wall of the upper terrace.
He was smoking a pipe of rabbit tobacco and had a little switch in his hand.
He was looking for his son.
Old Mr Bunny had no opinion whatsoever of cats.
He took a tremendous jump off the top of the wall onto the top of the cat and cuffed it off the basket and kicked it under the garden house scratching off a handful of fur.
The cat was too surprised to scratch back.
When Mr Bunny had driven the cat into the greenhouse he locked the door.
When he came back to the basket and took out his son Benjamin by the ears and whipped him with a little switch.
Then he took out his nephew Peter.
And he took out the handkerchief and onions and marched out of the garden.
When Mr MacGregor returned half an hour later he observed several things that perplexed him.
It looked as though some person had been walking all over the garden in a pair of clogs.
Only the foot marks were too ridiculously little.
Also he could not understand how the cat could have managed to shut himself inside the greenhouse locking the door upon the outside.
And when Peter got home his mother forgave him because she was so glad to see that he had found his shoes and coat.
Cotton-tair and Peter folded up the pocket handkerchief and old Mrs Rabbit strung up the onions and hung them from the kitchen ceiling with the rabbit tobacco.
The end.
I hope you enjoyed that story.
We're going to have another one soon but right now I need you to make sure your eyes are closed.
And just lying there upon your bed.
Start imagining that you're running up and down a beach.
It's so nice the sun is upon your skin.
As you breathe in you can smell the salty water upon the air.
You decide to sit down in the sand and just lay back feeling the warm warm sand upon your back.
It's time to build sandcastles later but right now you're going to have a nap.
So you just run your fingers imagine running your fingers just over the top of the warm sand.
You're breathing in and out so carefully.
Being really aware of your breath as your chest and your tummy rise up as you breathe in and they go out as you breathe out.
Good night and have lovely dreams.
