The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The story of the four little children who went round
the world Once upon a time. A long while ago,
there were four little people whose names were Violet, Slingsby,
Guy and Lionel, and they all thought they should like
to see the world, so they bought a large boat
to sail quite round the world by sea, and then
they were to come back on the other side by land.

(00:22):
The boat was painted blue with green spots, and the
sail was yellow with red stripes, and when they set
off they could only took a small cat to steer
and look after the boat, besides an age elderly quangle wangle,
who had to cook the dinner and make the tea,
for which purposes they took a large kettle. For the

(00:43):
first ten days they sailed on beautifully and found plenty
to eat, as there were lots of fish, and they
had only to take them out of the sea with
a long spoon, when the quangle wangle instantly cooked them,
and the pussy cat was fed with the bones, with
which expressed herself pleased on the whole, so that all
the party were very happy. During the daytime, Violet chiefly

(01:06):
occupied herself in putting salt water into the churn, while
her three brothers churned it violently in the hope that
it would turn into butter, which it seldom, if ever did,
and in the evening they all retired into the tea kettle,
where they all managed to sleep very comfortably, while Pussy
and the quangle Wangle managed the boat. After a time

(01:28):
they saw some land at a distance, and when they
came to it they found it was an island made
of water, quite surrounded by earth, beside that it was
bordered by evanescent isthmus, with a great gulf stream running
all over it, so that it was perfectly beautiful and
contained only a single tree five hundred and three feet high.

(01:50):
When they had landed, they walked about, but found to
their great surprise that the island was quite full of
veal cutlets and chocolate drops and nothing else. Them up
to the single high tree to discover, if possible, if
there were any people, But having remained on the top
of the tree for a week and not seeing anybody,
they naturally concluded that there were no inhabitants, and accordingly,

(02:12):
when they came down, they loaded the boat with two
thousand veal cutlets and a million of chocolate drops, and
these afforded them sub sustenance for more than a month,
during which time they pursued their voyage with utmost delight
and apathy. After this, they came to a shore where
there were no less than sixty five great red parrots
with blue tails, sitting on a rail, all of a row,

(02:35):
and all fast asleep. And I am sorry to say
that the pussycat and the quangle wangle crept softly and
bit off the tail feathers of all the sixty five parrots,
for which Violet reproved them both severely, notwithstanding which he
proceeded to insert all the feathers, two hundred and sixty
in number in her bonnet, thereby causing it to have

(02:56):
a lovely and glittering appearance, highly possessing and efficacious. The
next thing that happened to them was in a narrow
part of the sea, which was so entirely full of
fishes that the boat could go no farther. So they
remained there about six weeks till they had eaten nearly
all the fishes, which were soles and already cooked and
covered with shrimp sauce, so there was no trouble whatever,

(03:21):
And as the few fishes who remained uneaten, complained of
the cold, as well as the difficulty they had in
getting any sleep, on account of the extreme noise made
by the Arctic bears and tropical turnspits which frequented the
neighborhood in great numbers. Violet most amiably knitted a small
woo and frock for several of the fishes, and slingsby
administered some opium drops to them, through which kindness they

(03:44):
became quite warm and slept soundly. Then they came to
a country which was wholly covered with immense orange trees
of a vast size, and quite full of fruit. So
they all landed, taking with them the tea kettle, intending
to gather some of the oranges and place them in it.
But while they were busy about this, a most dreadfully
high windrows and blew out most of the parrot tail

(04:06):
feathers from Violet's bonnet. That, however, was nothing compared with
the calamity of the oranges falling down on their heads
by millions and millions, which thumped and bumped and bumped
and thumped them all so seriously that they were obliged
to run as hard as they could for their lives.
Besides that, the sound of the oranges rattling on the
tea kettle was of the most fearful and amazing nature. Nevertheless,

(04:31):
they got safely to the boat, although considerably vexed and hurt,
and the quangle Wangle's right foot was so knocked about
that he had to sit with his head and his
slipper for at least a week. This event made them
all for a time rather melancholy, and perhaps they might
never have become less so had not Lionel, with a
most praiseworthy devotion and perseverance, continued to stand on one

(04:54):
leg and whistled to them in a loud and lively manner,
which diverted the whole party, exc extremely that they gradually
recovered their spirits, and agreed that whenever they should reach home,
they would subscribe towards a testimonial to Lionel, entirely made
of gingerbread and raspberries, as an earnest token of their
sincere and grateful infection. After sailing on calmly for several

(05:17):
more days, there came to another country, where they were
much pleased and surprised to see a countless multitude of
white mice with red eyes, all sitting in a great circle,
slowly eating custard pudding with a most satisfactory and polite demeanor.
And as the four travelers were rather hungry, being tired
of eating nothing but soles and oranges for so long

(05:38):
a period, they held a council as to the propriety
of asking the mice for some of their pudding in
a humble and affecting manner by which they could hardly
be otherwise than gratified. It was agreed therefore that guy
should go and ask the mice, which he immediately did,
and the result was that they gave a walnut shell
only half full of custard diluted with water. Now this

(06:00):
displeased guy, who said, out of such a lot of
pudding as you have got, I must say you must
have spared a somewhat larger quantity. But no sooner than
he had finished speaking than the mice turned round at
once and sneezed at him in an appalling and vindictive manner.
And it is impossible to manage in a more scrublous

(06:21):
unpleasant sound than that caused by the simultaneous sneezing of
many millions of angry mice, so that Guy rushed back
to the boat, having first shied his scap in the
middle of the custard pudding, by which means he completely
spoiled the mice's dinner. By and By the four children
came to a country where there were no houses, but
only an incredibly innubrable number of large bottles without corks,

(06:45):
and of a dazzling in sweet, susceptible blue color. Each
of these blue bottles contained a blue bottle fly, and
all these interesting animals live continually in the most copious
and rural harmony. Nor perhaps in many parts of the world,
is such perfect an abject happiness to be found. Violet
and Slingsby, and Guy and Lina were greatly struck with

(07:05):
this singular and instructive settlement, and having previously asked permission
of the blue bottle flies, which was most courteously granted.
The boat was drawn up to the shore and they
proceeded to make tea in front of the bottles, but
as they had no tea leaves, they merely placed some
pebbles in the hot water, and the quangowane called plates
and tunes over it on an unaccordion, by which of course,

(07:27):
tea was made directly and of the very best quality.
The four children then entered into conversation with the blue bottleflies,
who discoursed in a placid and genteel manner, though with
a slightly buzzing accent, chiefly owing to the fact that
they each held a small clothesbrush between their teeth, which
naturally occasioned a fizzy extraneous utterance. Why, said Violet, would

(07:52):
you kindly inform USTU would reside in bottles? And if
in bottles are tall, why not rather in green or purple,
or indeed in yellow bottles? To which questions are very
aged blue bottle fly answered, we found the bottles here
all ready to live in, that is to say, our
great great great great great grandfathers did. So we occupied

(08:13):
them at once, and when the winter comes on, we
turn the bottles upside down and consequently rarely feel the
cold at all. And you know very well that this
could not be the case with bottles of any other
color than blue. Of course it could not, said Slingsby.
But if we may take the liberty of inquiring on
what do you chiefly subsist mainly on oyster patties? Said

(08:36):
the blue bottle fly. And when these are scarce on
raspberry vinegar and Russian leather, boiled down to a jelly,
how delicious, said Guy, to which Lionel added, huzz, And
all the blue bottleflies said buzz. At this time, an
elderly fly said it was the hour for the evening
song to be sung, And on a signal being given,

(08:57):
all the blue bottleflies began to buzz at once sumptuous
and sonorous manner, the melodious and mockuluginous sounds echoing all
over the waters and resounding across the tumultuous tops of
the transitory tit mice upon the intervening and verdant mountains
with a serene and sickly suavity only known to the

(09:17):
truly virtuous. The moon was shining slabaceously from the stars
bespangled sky, while her light irrigated the smooth and shiny
sides and wings and backs of the blue bottleflies with
a peculiar and trivial splendor, while all nature cheerfully responded
to the cyrillian and conspicuous circumstances. In many long after years,

(09:39):
the four little travelers looked back to that evening as
one of the happiest in all their lives. And it
was already past midnight when the sail of the boat
having been set up by the quangle wangle, the tea
kettle and churn placed in their respective positions, and the
putticat stationed at the helm. The children each took a
last and affectionate farewell of the blue bottle flies, who

(10:00):
walked down in the body to the water's edge to
see the travelers embark. As a token of parting respect
and esteam, Violet made a curtsey quite down to the
ground and stuck one of her few remaining parrot tail
feathers into the back hair of the most pleasing of
the blue bottle flies, Whilstling's bea Gye and Lionel offered
them three small boxes containing respectively black pins, dried figs,

(10:23):
and ebbs and salts. And thus they left that happy
shore forever. Overcome by their feelings, the four little travelers
instantly jumped into the tea kettle and fell fast asleep.
But all along the shore for many hours there was
a distinctively hurt, a sound of severely suppressed sobs, and
a vague multitude of living creatures using their pocket handkerchiefs

(10:45):
in a subdued, simultaneous snuffle, lingering sadly along the walloping
waves as the boat sailed further and further away from
the land of happy blue bottle flies. Nothing particular occurred
for some days after these events, except that as the
travelers were passing a low tract of sand, they perceived
an unusual and gratifying spectacle, namely, a large number of

(11:06):
crabs and crawfish, perhaps six or seven hundred, sitting by
the water side and endeavoring to disentangle a vast heap
of pale pink worsted, which they moistened at intervals with
a fluid composed of lavender water and white wine. Negus,
Can we be of any service to you at crusty krabbies,
said the four children. Thank you, kindly, said the crabs consecutively.

(11:29):
We are trying to make some worstedmittens, but we do
not know how on which. Violet, who was perfectly acquainted
with the art of mitten making, said to the crabs,
duke claws unscrew or are they fixtures? They are all
made to unscrew, said the crabs, and forthwith they deposited
a great pile of claws close to the boat, with
which Violet uncombed all the pale pink worsted and then

(11:51):
made the loveliest mittens with it. You can imagine these
The crabs, having resumed and screwed on their claws, placed
cheerfully upon their wrists, walked away rapidly on their hind legs,
warbling songs with a silvery voice and in a minor key.
After this, the four little people sailed on again till
they came to a vast and wide plaine of astonishing dimensions,

(12:12):
on which nothing whatever could be discovered at first. But
as the travelers walked onward, there appeared in the extreme
and dim distance a single object, which, on a nearer
approach and on an accurately coutaneous inspection, seemed to be
somebody in a large white wig, sitting on an armchair
made of sponge cakes and oyster shells. It does not

(12:34):
quite look like a human being, said Violet doubtfully, nor
could they make out what it really was, till the
quangle Wangle, who had previously been round the world, exclaimed
softly in a loud voice, it is the cooperative cauliflower,
and so in truth it was, and they soon found
that what they had taken for an immense wig was

(12:55):
in reality the top of the cauliflower, and that he
had no feet at all, being a to walk tolerably
well with a fluctuating and graceful movement on a single
cabbage stalk, an accomplishment which naturally saved him from the
expense of stockings and shoes. Presently, while the whole party
from the boat was gazing at him with mingled affection
and disgust, he suddenly arose, and, in a somewhat plum

(13:19):
dumfious manner, hurried off towards the setting sun, his steps
supported by two superincumbent confidential cucumbers and a large number
of water wag tails, proceeding in advance of him by
three and three in a row, till he finally disappeared
on the brink of the western sky in a crystal
cloud of pseudophixed sand. So remarkable a sight, of course,

(13:42):
impressed the four children very deeply, and they returned immediately
to their boat with a strong sense of underdeveloped asthma
and a great appetite. Shortly after this, the travelers were
obliged to sail directly below some high overhanging rocks, from
the top of one of which a peculiarly odious little
boy dressed in rose colored nickerbockers and with a pewter

(14:03):
plate upon his head, threw an enormous pumpkin at the boat,
by which it was instantly upset. But this upsetting was
of no consequence, because all the party knew how to
swim very well, and in fact they preferred swimming about
till after the moon rose, when the water growing chilly,
they spongeatiously entered the boat. Meanwhile, the quangle wangle threw

(14:27):
back the pumpkin with immense force, so that it hit
the rocks where the malicious little boy in rose colored
nickerbockers was sitting. When, being quite full of lucifer matches,
the pumpkin exploded surreptitiously into a thousand bits, whereon the
rock instantly took fire, and the odious little boy became
unpleasantly hotter and hotter and hotter, till his knickerbockers were

(14:49):
turned quite green and his nose was burnt off. Two
or three days after this happened, they came to another
place where they found nothing at all except some wide
and deeper pits full of mulbridge. This is the property
of the tiny yellow nosed apes who abound in these districts,
and who store up the mulberry jam for their food
and winter, when they mix it with pellucid pale periwinkle

(15:11):
soup and serve it in wedgewood china bowls, which grow
freely all over that part of the country. Only one
of the yellow nosed apes was on the spot, and
he was fast asleep. Yet the four travelers and the
quangle Wangle and Pussy were so terrified by the violence
and sanguringly sound of his snoring that they merely took
a small cupful of the jam and returned to re

(15:33):
embark in the boat without delay. What was their horror
on seeing the boat, including the chin and the tea kettle,
in the mouth of the enormous sea spider, an aquatic
and ferocious creature truly dreadful to behold, and happily only
met within those excessive longitudes. In a moment, the beautiful
boat was bitten into fifty five thousand, million, hundred billion bits,

(15:57):
and it instantly became quite clear that violence slings bea
guy and lionel could no longer preliminate their voyage by sea.
The four travelers were therefore obliged to resolve on pursuing
their wanderings by land, and very fortunately there happened to
pass by at that moment an elderly rhinoceros, on which
they seized, and all four mounting on his back, the

(16:18):
quangle wangle sitting on his horn and holding on by
his ears, and the pussycats swinging at the end of
his tail. They set off, having only forced more beans
and three pounds of mashed potatoes to last through the
whole journey. They were, however, able to catch a number
of the chickens and turkeys and other birds who incessantly
alighted on the head of the rhinoceros for the purpose

(16:40):
of gathering the seeds of the rhododendron plants which grew there.
And these creatures they cooked in the most translucent and
satisfactory manner by means of a fire lighted on the
end of the rhinoceros's back. A crowd of kangaroos and
gigantic cranes accompanied them from feeling as of curiosity and complacency,
so they were never at lost for company, and went onward,

(17:02):
as it were, in a sort of profuse and triumphant procession. Thus,
in less than eighteen weeks they all arrived safely at home,
where they were received by their admiring relatives with joy
tempered with contempt, and where they finally resolved to carry
out the rest of their traveling plans at some more
favorable opportunity. As for the rhinoceros, in token of their

(17:25):
grateful adherence, they had him killed and stuffed directly, and
then set him up outside the door of their father's
house as a diaphanous door scraper. End of the story
of the Four Little Children who went round the World.