Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - Bedtime Story Double Bill - Alice in Wonderland Continues and Tom Thumb

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with the bell to get alerts on all new free content thank you have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun

Starting point is 00:01:16 or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti if you have you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast every week we explore tales of this ancient culture The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. Hello and welcome to Sleep Cove, the podcast and YouTube channel helping you get a good night's sleep. I hoped you enjoyed last week's double bill of bedtime stories, and this episode will also be a double bill. first starting with Alice and Wonderland Chapter 5

Starting point is 00:02:08 followed by the grim fairy tale Tom Thumb If you like the Alice and Wonderland Chapter 5 read Please remember that there are other chapters Also on the podcast As well as all the previous chapters Being ad and intro free

Starting point is 00:02:30 On the Patreon So if you wish to support the podcast, please go to patreon.com slash sleepcove to find out how you can support and get bonus content on a weekly basis. After I have read out Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 5, I'll introduce the sponsor of this episode, BetterHelp, and that will then lead into Tom Thumb. or listen to this sleep recording or any other sleep recording whilst driving or operating heavy machinery. Please listen in a place where you can safely go to sleep. Let's begin. Chapter 5. Advice from a caterpillar. Caterpillar and Alice look to each other for some time in silence.

Starting point is 00:03:42 At last the caterpillar took out the hooker out of its mouth and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice. Who are you? said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied rather shyly, I, I hardly know sir, just at present. At least I know. who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then. What do you mean by that? said the caterpillar sternly. Explain yourself. I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir, said Alice, because I am not myself, you see. Don't see, said the caterpillar.

Starting point is 00:04:39 I'm afraid to understand it myself to begin with and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing caterpillar well perhaps you haven't found out so yet said Alice but when you turn into a chrysalis you will someday you know

Starting point is 00:05:12 and then after that into a butterfly I should think you feel it a little queer, won't you? Not a bit, said the caterpillar. Or perhaps your feelings may be different, said Alice. All I know is it would feel very queer to me. You, said the caterpillar, who are you? Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation, felt a little irritated.

Starting point is 00:05:47 at the caterpillars, making such very short remarks, as she drew herself up and said very gravely, I think you ought to tell me who you are first, said the caterpillar. Here was another puzzling question, and as Alice could not think of any good reason, as the caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away. Come back, the caterpillar called. I have something important to say.

Starting point is 00:06:27 This sounded promising certainly. Alice turned and came back again. Keep your temper, said the caterpillar. Is that all? said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could. No, said the caterpillar. Alice thought she might as well. wait. If she had nothing else to do, it unfolded its arms, took the hooker out of its mouth again and said, So you think you'll change to you? I'm afraid I am, sir, San Alice. I can't remember things as I used, and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together. Can't remember

Starting point is 00:07:34 what things, said the caterpillar. Well, I've tried to say, how doth the little busy be? But it all came different, Alice replied, in a very melancholy voice. Repeat, you are old, Father William, said the caterpillar, folded her hands and began. You were old and said,

Starting point is 00:08:04 Yet you incessantly stand on your head. Do you think at your age it is right? Father William replied to his son, I feared it might injure the brain, but now that I am perfectly sure I have none, why I'll do it again and again. You are old, said the youth, as I mentioned before, and have grown most uncommonly fat.

Starting point is 00:08:41 Yet you turned a back somersault. salt in at the door. Pray, what is the reason of that? In my youth, said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, I kept all my limbs very supple. By the use of this ointment, one shilling the box, allow me to sell you a couple. You are old, said the youth, and your jaws are too weak, for anything tougher than sew it. yet you finish the goose with the bones and the beak. Pray, how did you manage to do it? My youth, said his father, I took to the law

Starting point is 00:09:28 and argued each case with my wife, and the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw has lasted the rest of my life. You are old at the youth. One hardly would suppose that your eye was as steady as ever. Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose. What made you so awfully clever? I've answered three questions and that is enough, said his father, don't give yourself airs. Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off or I'll kick you

Starting point is 00:10:12 downstairs. That's not said right, said the caterpillar. Not quite right, I'm afraid, said Alice timidly. Some of the words have got altered. It is wrong from beginning to end, said the caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes. Their caterpillar was the first to speak. What size do you want to be? It asked, not particular. as to size, Alice hastily replied, Only one doesn't like changing so often, you know. I don't know, said the caterpillar. Alice said nothing.

Starting point is 00:11:01 She had never been so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt she was losing her temper. You content now, said the caterpillar. Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind, said Alice. Three inches is such a wretched height to be. It is a very good height indeed, said the caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke. It was exactly three inches high. But I'm not used to it, pleaded poor Alice in a pieter's tone.

Starting point is 00:11:40 She thought of herself, I wish the creatures wouldn't so easily be offended. You'll get used to it in times said the caterpillar And it put the hookup into his mouth And began smoking again This time Alice waited patiently Until it chose to speak again In a minute or two The caterpillar took the hooker out of its mouth

Starting point is 00:12:07 And yawned once or twice And shook itself Then it got down off the mushroom And crawled away into the crue grass, merely remarking as it went, one side will make you grow taller and the other side will make you grow shorter. One side of what? The other side of what? thought Alice to herself. Of the mushroom, said the caterpillar, just as she had asked it aloud and in another moment it was out of sight. Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it, and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round as far as they would go and she broke off

Starting point is 00:13:11 A bit of the edge with both. Which is which she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right hand bit to take effect. The next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin. It had struck her foot. She was a good deal frightened by this sudden change. She felt that there was no time to be lost, and she was shrinking rapidly.

Starting point is 00:13:41 So she set to work out to eat some of the other bit, her chin was so pressed closely against her foot there was hardly room to open her mouth but she did at last and managed to swallow a morsel of the left handpit at last said Alice in a tone of delight which changed into a laugh she could see when she looked down

Starting point is 00:14:22 once an immense length of neck which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a green sea of leaves that lay far. But green stuff be, said Alice. Where have my shoulders got to? And's, how is it? I can't see you. She was moving them about as she spoke,

Starting point is 00:14:53 but no result seemed to follow except a little shaking among the distant green leaves. As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands, up to her head, she tried to get her head down to them. Lighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag and was going to dive in among the leaves, but she found to be nothing but the tops of the trees under which she had been wandering.

Starting point is 00:15:37 when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry. A large pigeon had flown into her face, I was beating her violently with its wings. Serpent screamed the pigeon. I am not a serpent, said Alice indignantly. Leave me alone. Serpent, I say again, repeated the pigeon, but a more subdued tone,

Starting point is 00:16:02 and added with a kind of sob, I've tried every way, and nothing seems to suit them. I haven't the least idea what you're talking about, said Alice. Roots of trees, I've tried banks, I've tried hedges, the pigeon went on without attending to her. But those serpents, there's no pleasing them. Alice was more and more puzzled,

Starting point is 00:16:31 but she thought there was no use in saying anything more to the pigeon had finished. If it wasn't trouble hatching enough, the eggs, said the pigeon, but I must be on the lookout for serpents night and day, why I haven't had a wink of sleep in these three weeks. Very sorry, you've been annoyed, said Alice, who is beginning to see its meaning. And just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood, continued the pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek,

Starting point is 00:17:04 and just as far as I was thinking, I should be for, free of them at last, and needs come wruggling down from the sky. Ugh, a serpent. But I am not a serpent, I tell you, said Alice, I'm a, I'm a, well, what are you, said the pigeon? I can see you're trying to invent something. I'm, I'm a little girl, said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day. A likely story indeed, said the person.

Starting point is 00:17:39 pigeon in the tone of the deepest contempt. I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never one with such a neck as that. No, no, you're a serpent, used denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me that next, you've never tasted an egg. I have tasted said eggs, certainly, said Alice, who was a very truthful child. But little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do. You know, I don't believe if they do. Why then? They're a kind of serpent. That's all I can say. It was quite silent for a which gave the pigeon the opportunity of adding. You're looking for eggs. I know that you're a little girl or a serpent. It matters. I Good deal to me, said Alice hastily.

Starting point is 00:18:50 But I'm not looking for eggs, as it happens, and if I was, I shouldn't want yours. I don't like them raw. Well, beats at the pigeon in a soggy tone, as it settled down into its nest, it's getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop. She remembered that she still held the, pieces of mushrooms in her hands, and she set to work carefully, nibbling first at one, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she has succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height. Not long since she had been anything near the right size,

Starting point is 00:19:58 that it felt quite strange at first, but she got used to it in a few minutes. and began talking to herself as usual, come, there's half my plan done now. How puzzling all these changes are. I'm never sure what I'm going to be from one minute to another. However, I've got back to my right size. The next thing is to get that beautiful garden. How is that to be done, I wonder.

Starting point is 00:20:32 As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with the little house in it about four feet high. Whoever lives here, thought Alice, never do to come upon them this size. Why, I should frighten them out of their wits. So she began nibbling at the right hand bit again, and did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high. I'm happy to introduce the sponsor of this podcast BetterHelp, which is an online therapy service,

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Starting point is 00:23:15 dot com slash sleepgove. Woodsman sat in his cottage one night smoking his pipe by the fireside with his wife sat by his side spinning how lonely it is wife he said as he puffed out a long curl of smoke for you and me to sit here by ourselves

Starting point is 00:23:54 without any children to play about and amused us while other people seem so happy and merry with their children. What you say is very true, said the wife, sighing and turning round her wheel. How happy should I be if I had but one child? If it were ever so small, nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb, I should be very happy and love it dearly. Now, odd as you may think,

Starting point is 00:24:28 it came to pass that this good woman's wish was fulfilled. Just in the very way she had wished it for, not long afterwards, she had a little boy, who was quite healthy and strong, but not much bigger than my thumb. So they said, well, we cannot say we have not got what we wish for, and, little as he is, we love him dearly,

Starting point is 00:24:57 And they called him Thomas Thumb. They gave him plenty of food. Yet for all they could do, he never grew bigger, but kept just about the same size as he had been when he was born. Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed himself to be a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about. One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to cut fuel, he said,

Starting point is 00:25:35 I wish I had someone to bring the cart after me, for I want to make haste. Oh father, cried Tom, I will take care of that. The cart shall be in the wood by the time you want it. Then the woodman left, he said. How can that be? You cannot reach up to the horse's bridle. Never mind that father, said Tom. If my mother will, only harness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way to go. Well, said the father, we will try for once.

Starting point is 00:26:16 When the time came, the mother harnessed the horse to the cart and put Tom into his ear, and he sat there. The little man told the beast how to go, crying out. go on and stop, as he wanted. And thus the horse went on just as well as if the woodman had been driving it himself into the wood. It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tom was going out gently, gently, two strangers came up. What an odd thing that is, one said.

Starting point is 00:26:57 There is a cart going along, and I hear a little bit. a little carter talking to the horse. But yet I can see no one. That is queer indeed, said the other. Let us follow the cart and see where it goes. So they went on into the wood

Starting point is 00:27:16 till at last they came to the place where the woodman was, where Tom, seeing his father, cried out, See, father, I am here with the cart, all right and safe. Now, take me down. So his father

Starting point is 00:27:36 took hold of the horse with one hand and with the other took his son out of the horse's ear and put him down upon a straw where he sat as merry as he blease.

Starting point is 00:27:50 The two strangers were all this time looking on and did not know what to say for wonder. At last one took the other side and said that little urchin

Starting point is 00:28:03 will make off fortune. If we can get him and carry him about from town to town as a show, we must buy him. So they went up to the woodman and asked how much they would take for the little man. He would be better off, said they. Were thus than with you? I won't sell him at all, said the farmer. My own flesh and blood is dearer to me than all the silver and gold in the world. But Tom, hearing of the bargain, they wanted to make. crept up his father's coat to his shoulder and whispered in his ear, take my money father and let them have me.

Starting point is 00:28:42 I will soon come back to you, so the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers. For a large piece of gold and they paid the price. Where would you like to sit? said one of them. I'll remove your hat. That would be a nice gallery for me. walk about there and see the country as we go along. So they did as he wished,

Starting point is 00:29:16 and when Tom had taken leave of his father, they took him away with them. They journeyed on till it became dusky, and the little man said, Let me down, I'm tired. So the man took off his hat and put him down on the clod of earth in a ploughed field by the side of the road.

Starting point is 00:29:41 But Tom rang amongst the furrows, and at last slipped into an old mouse hole. Good night, my masters, he said. I'm off, mind and looked sharp after me the next time. They ran up once to the place and poked the ends of their sticks into the mouse hole. But all in vain, Tom only crawled farther and farther in, and at last it became quite dark. So they were forced to go their way without their prize,

Starting point is 00:30:16 as sulky as could be. When Tom found they were gone, he came out to his hiding place. What dangerous walking it is, he said. In this ploughed field, if I were to fall for one of these great clods, I should undoubtedly break my neck. At last by good luck, He found a large, empty snail shell. This is lucky, he said.

Starting point is 00:30:48 I can sleep here very well. And in he crept. Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men passing by, chatting together. And one said to the other, how can we rob that rich Parsons' house of his silver and gold? I'll tell you, cried Tom. What noise was that, said the thief, frightened.

Starting point is 00:31:16 I'm sure I heard someone speak, they stood listening, and Tom said, Take me with you, and I'll soon show you how to get the Parthens money, are you? said they. Look about on the ground, answered he, and listen where the sound comes from. At last the thieves found him out and lifted him up on their hands. You little urchin, they said. What can you do for us? Why, I can get between the iron window bars of the Parsons house and throw you out whatever you want.

Starting point is 00:32:07 That's a good thought, said the thieves. Come along, we'll see what you can do. When they came to the Parsons house, Tom slipped through the window bars into the room and then called out as loud as he could ball. Will you have all that is here? At this the thieves were frightened and said, Softly, softly, speak low, that you may not awaken anybody.

Starting point is 00:32:40 Seemed as if he did not understand them. He gave herself a little way. But at last they plucked up their hearts and they said, The little urchin is only trying to make fools of us. So they came back and whispered softly, to him, saying, Now let us have no more of your roguish jokes,

Starting point is 00:33:23 but throws out some of the money called out as loud as he could. Very well. Hold your hands. Here it comes. Cook her this quite plain, and she sprang out of bed. Leaves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails,

Starting point is 00:33:48 and the maid, having roped around and found nothing, went away for a light. she came back, Tom had slipped off into the barn. She had looked about and searched every hole and corner and found nobody. She went to bed, thinking she must have been dreaming with her eyes open, rest in, late till daylight, and his way home to his mother and father. But alas, how woefully was he undone? What crosses?

Starting point is 00:34:49 and sorrows happen to all of us in this world. The cook got up early before daybreak to feed the cows, and going straight to the hayloft, carried away a large bundle with the little man. He still, however, slept Tom, not awake till he found himself, but the cook knows Rick had taken Tom up in a mouthful of it. Good like a day, he said, to tumble into this mill. but he soon found out where he really was

Starting point is 00:35:47 and was forced to have his wits about him that he might not get in between the cow's teeth and so be crushed to death. At last down he went into a stomach. It's rather dark, he said. They forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in. A candle would be no bad thing,

Starting point is 00:36:15 made the best of his bad luck. He did not like his quarters. waters at all, and the worst of it was more and more hay was coming down, and the space left for him became smaller and smaller. And last he cried out as loud as he could, don't bring me any more hay, don't bring me any more hay. The maid happened to be just milking the cow, and hearing someone speak, but seeing nobody, and yet quite sure it was the same voice that she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell off her stall and overset them as soon as she could pick herself up out of the dirt.

Starting point is 00:37:02 She ran off as fast as she could to her master, the parson, and she said, Sir, sir, the cow is talking. But the parson said, woman, thou art surely mad. however he went with her into the cowhouse to try and see what was the matter scarcely had they set foot on the threshold the person himself was frightened was surely bewitched told his man to kill her on the spot so the cow was killed and cut up

Starting point is 00:37:43 and the stomach in which tall lay was thrown out at himself to work to get out which was not an easy task But at last, just as he had made room to get his head out, Fresh ill luck befell him. A hungry wolf sprang out and swallowed the whole stomach, with Tom in it. At one gulp there was not disheartened,

Starting point is 00:38:20 and thinking the wolf would not dislike having someone chat with him as he was going along he called out, My good friend, I can show you a famous tree, Where's that? said the wolf. In such a house? said Tom describing his own father's house. You can crawl through the drain in the kitchen and then into the pantry and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, cold chicken, roast pig, apple dumplings and everything that your heart can wish. Wolf did not want to be asked twice. So that very night he went to the house and crawled through the drain to his heart as he had had enough. He wanted to get away. But he had eaten so much that he could not go out by the same way he came in. This was just what Tom had reckoned about. What's that to me? said the little man. You have had your frolic now. I have a mind to be married myself. And you began.

Starting point is 00:40:07 singing, shouting as loud as he could. The woodman and his wife began, awakened to the noise, peeped through a crack in the door. But when they saw a wolf was there, you may suppose that they were sadly frightened, and the woodman ran for his axe and his wife a scythe. Do you stay behind, said the woodman, and when I have knocked you must rip his wife, him up with a scythe. Tom heard all of this and cried out, Father, Father, I'm here. The wolf has swallowed me. And the father said, Heaven be praised, we have found our dear child again. And he told his wife not to use the

Starting point is 00:41:00 scythe for fear she would hurt him. When he aimed a great blow, he struck the wolf on the head and killed him on the spot. And when he was dead, They opened him up and found Tommy and set him free. Ah, said the father, what fears we have had for you? Yes, father answered he, I have travelled all over the world. I think in one way or other, since we parted now, I am glad to come home and get fresh air. Why? Where have you been?

Starting point is 00:41:44 said his father, I've been in a mouse hole, in a snail shell, and down a cow's throat and the wolf's belly, not sell you again, for all the riches in the world, hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plenty to eat and drink, for he was very hungry, and then they fetched new clothes for him, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey. So Master Thumb stayed at home with his father and mother in peace, for though he had been so great a traveller, and had done and had seen so many fine things, and was fond of telling the whole story, he always agreed, after all, there's no place like home.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - Bedtime Story Double Bill - Alice in Wonderland Continues and Tom Thumb

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