The Velveteen Rabbit

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good evening, and welcome to Rest, your sanctuary for peaceful
sleep and relaxation. Whether you're escaping daily stresses or seeking
a nightly companion, you're in the right place. My name
is Jessica, and I'll be your host this evening. Before

(00:27):
we begin, why don't you turn off your screens and
turn down your volume. Now that's done, let's unwind and
help you ease into a blessed rest. This evening, we

(00:52):
return to our childhood days, where toys are not just
things but cherished companions, where dreams and reality blurs softly
at the edges, and where love has the power to
make even the smallest things real. Tonight I'll be reading

(01:21):
The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjorie Williams, a story that has
been loved for generations. Picture a quiet nursery bathed in
the soft glow of lamplight. Wooden soldiers stand in perfect rows,

(01:45):
a rocking horse waits patiently in the corner, and soft,
well loved toys rest upon the shelves, ready for adventure.
And somewhere among them, nestled far in the back, is

(02:08):
a little velveteen rabbit waiting, hoping to become real. There
was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he
was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy as a

(02:35):
rabbit should be. His coat was spotted brown and white.
He had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined
with pink satine. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged

(02:57):
in the top of the boy's star with a sprig
of holly between his paws, the effect was charming. There
were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges, and

(03:19):
a toy engine, and chocolate, almonds, and a clockwork mouse,
but the rabbit was quite the best of all. For
at least two hours, the boy loved him, and then

(03:41):
aunt's and uncles came to dinner, and there was a
great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and
in the excitement of looking at all the new presence,

(04:02):
the velveteen rabbit was forgotten for a long time. He
lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor,
and no one thought very much about him. He was

(04:23):
naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of
the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys
were very superior and looked down upon everyone else. They

(04:47):
were full of modern ideas and pretended they were real.
The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and
lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them,
and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging

(05:12):
in technical terms. The rabbit could not claim to be
a model of anything, for he didn't know that real
rabbits existed. He thought they were all stuffed with sawdust,
like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out

(05:40):
of date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by
the disabled soldiers and should have had broader views, put

(06:01):
on airs and pretended he was connected with government. Between
them all, the poor little rabbit was made to feel
himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who

(06:23):
was kind to him at all was the skin horse.
The skin horse had lived longer in the nursery than
any of the others. He was so old that his
brown coat was baled in patches and showed the seams underneath,

(06:51):
and most of the hairs in his tail had been
pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for
he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive

(07:11):
to boast and swagger, and by and by break their
mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were
only toys and would never turn into anything else. For

(07:33):
nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those
playthings that are old and wise and experienced, like the
skin horse, understand all about it. What is real, asked

(07:59):
the rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy
the room. Does it mean having things that buzz inside
you and a stick out handle? Real isn't how you

(08:25):
are made, said the skin horse. It's a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for a
long long time, not just to play with, but really
loves you. Then you become real. Does it hurt? Asked

(08:52):
the rabbit, sometimes, said the skin horse, for he was
always truthful. When you are real, you don't mind being hurt.
Does it happen all at once, like being wound up?

(09:16):
He asked? Or bit by bit It doesn't happen all
at once, said the skin horse. You become it takes
a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to

(09:38):
people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who
have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you
are real, most of your hair has been loved off
and your eyes out, and you get loose in the

(10:04):
joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all,
because once you are real, you can't be ugly, except
to people who don't understand. I suppose you are real,

(10:28):
said the rabbit, and then he wished he had not
said it, for he thought the skin horse might be sensitive,
but the skin horse only smiled. The boy's uncle made

(10:49):
me real, he said. That was a great many years ago.
But once you are real, you can't become unreal again.
It lasts for always. The rabbit sighed. He thought it

(11:14):
would be a long time before this magic called real
happened to him. He longed to become real, to know
what it felt like, and yet the idea of growing
shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad.

(11:43):
He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable
things happening to him. There was a person called Nana
who ruled the nurse. Sometimes she took no notice of

(12:05):
the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever,
she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled
them away in cupboards. She called this tidying up, and

(12:29):
the playthings all hated it, especially the tin ones. The
rabbit didn't mind it so much, for wherever he was thrown,
he came down soft. One evening, when the boy was

(12:53):
going to bed, he couldn't find the china dog that
always him. Nana was in a hurry, and it was
too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime,

(13:13):
so she simply looked about her, and seeing that the
toy cupboard door stood open, she made a swoop here.
She said, take your old bunny. He'll do to sleep

(13:34):
with you, And she dragged the rabbit out by one
ear and put him into the boy's arms. That night,
and for many nights after, the velveteen rabbit slept in

(13:55):
the boy's bed. At first he found it rather uncomfortable,
for the boy hugged him very tight, and sometimes he
rolled over on him, and sometimes he pushed him so

(14:16):
far under the pillow that the rabbit could scarcely breathe
and he missed too, those long moonlight hours in the
nursery when all the house was silent, and his talks

(14:39):
with the skin horse. But very soon he grew to
like it, for the boy used to talk to him
and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that
he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in,

(15:04):
and they had splendid games together in whispers when Nana
had gone away to her supper and left the night
light burning on the mantelpiece, And when the boy dropped
off to sleep, the rabbit would snuggle down close under

(15:30):
his little warm chin and dream with the boy's hands
clasped close round him all night long. And so time
went on, and the little rabbit was very happy, so

(15:55):
happy that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur
was getting shabbier and shabbier, and his tail becoming unsewn,
and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the

(16:16):
boy had kissed him. Spring came and they had long
days in the garden, for wherever the boy went, the
rabbit went to. He had rides in the wheelbarrow, and

(16:39):
picnics on the grass, and lovely fairy huts built for
him under the raspberry canes behind the flower border, and
once when the boy was called away suddenly to go

(17:00):
out to tea, the rabbit was left out on the
lawn until long after dusk, and Nana had to come
and look for him with the candle, because the boy
couldn't go to sleep unless he was there. He was

(17:23):
wet through with the jew and quite earthy from diving
into the burrows the boy had made for him in
the flower bed, and Nana grumbled as she rubbed him
off with a corner of her apron. You must have

(17:47):
your old bunny, she said. Fancy all that fuss for
a toy. The boy sat up in bed and stretched
out his hands, Give me my bunny, he said. You

(18:10):
mustn't say that he isn't a toy. He's real. When
the little rabbit heard that, he was happy, for he
knew that what the skin horse had said was true.

(18:31):
At last, the nursery magic had happened to him, and
he was a toy no longer. He was real. The
boy himself had said it that night. He was almost

(18:54):
too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in
his little saw dust heart that it almost burst and
into his boot button eyes that had long ago lost
their polish. There came a look of wisdom and beauty,

(19:22):
so that even Nana noticed it next morning when she
picked him up and said, I declare if that old
bunny hasn't got quite a knowing expression. That was a
wonderful summer. Near the house where they lived, there was

(19:49):
a wood, and in the long June evenings, the boy
liked to go there after tea to play. He took
the velveteen rabbit with him, and before he wandered off
to pick flowers or play at brigands among the trees,

(20:15):
he always made the rabbit a little nest somewhere among
the bracken, where he would be quite cozy, for he
was a kind hearted little boy, and he liked bunny
to be comfortable. One evening, while the rabbit was lying

(20:43):
there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro
between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two
strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.

(21:04):
They were rabbits like himself, but quite furry and brand new.
They must have been very well made, for their seams
didn't show at all, and they changed shape in a

(21:26):
queer way when they moved. One minute they were long
and thin, and the next minute fat and bunchie. Instead
of always staying the same like he did, their feet

(21:50):
padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close
to him, twitching their noses, while the rabbit stared hard
to see which side the clockwork stuck out, for he
knew that people who jump generally have something to wind

(22:16):
them up, but he couldn't see it. They were evidently
a new kind of rabbit altogether. They stared at him,
and the little rabbit stared back, and all the time

(22:38):
their noses twitched. Why don't you get up and play
with us, one of them asked, I don't feel like it,
said the rabbit, for he didn't want to explain that
he had no clockwork. Ho said the furry rabbit, it's

(23:07):
as easy as anything, and he gave a big hop
sideways and stood on his hind legs. I don't believe
you can, he said, I can, said the little rabbit.

(23:30):
I can jump higher than anything he meant when the
boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to
say so, can you hop on your hind legs? Asked
the furry rabbit that was a dreadful question, for the

(23:57):
velveteen rabbit had now hind legs at all. The back
of him was made all in one piece, like a pincushion.
He sat still in the bracken and hoped that the
other rabbits wouldn't notice. I don't want to, he said again.

(24:27):
But the wild rabbits have very sharp eyes. And this
one stretched out his neck and looked. He hasn't got
any hind legs. He called out, fancy a rabbit without

(24:48):
any hind legs, and he began to laugh. I have
cried the little rabbit. I have got hind legs. I
am sitting on them. Then stretch them out and show

(25:10):
me like this, said the wild rabbit, and he began
to whirl round and dance till the little rabbit got
quite dizzy. I don't like dancing, he said, I'd rather

(25:33):
sit still, But all the while he was longing to
dance for a funny, new tickly feeling ran through him,
and he felt he would give anything in the world

(25:53):
to be able to jump about like these rabbits did.
The strange rabbit stopped dancing and came quite close. He
came so close this time that his long whiskers brushed

(26:16):
the velveteen rabbit's ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly,
and flattened his ears and jumped backwards. He doesn't smell right,
he exclaimed. He isn't a rabbit at all. He isn't real.

(26:44):
I am reel, said the little rabbit. I am reel.
The boy said so, and he nearly began to cry.
Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the

(27:05):
boy ran past near them, and with a stamp of
feet and a flash of white tails, the two strange
rabbits disappeared. Come back and play with me, called the

(27:25):
little rabbit. Oh, do come back? I know I am real,
But there was no answer. Only the little ants ran
to and fro, and the bracken swayed gently. Where the

(27:49):
two strangers had passed. The velveteen rabbit was all alone.
Oh dear, he thought, Why did they run away like that?
Why couldn't they stop and talk to me. For a

(28:14):
long time he lay very still, watching the bracken and
hoping that they would come back. But they never returned,
And presently the sun sank lower, and the little white

(28:37):
moths fluttered out, and the boy came and carried him home.
Weeks passed, and the little rabbit grew very old and shabby,
but the boy loved him just as much. He loved

(29:01):
him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off,
and the pink lining to his ears turned gray, and
his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape,

(29:25):
and he scarcely looked like a rabbit anymore, except to
the boy. To him, he was always beautiful, and that
was all that the little rabbit cared about. He didn't

(29:47):
mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery
magic had made him real, and when you are real,
shabbiness doesn't matter. And then one day the boy was ill.

(30:11):
His face grew very flushed, and he talked in his sleep,
and his little body was so hot that it burned
the rabbit when he held him close. Strange people came
and went in the nursery, and a light burned all night,

(30:39):
and through it all the little velveteen rabbit lay there,
hidden from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred,
for he was afraid that if they found him, someone

(30:59):
might take him away, and he knew that the boy
needed him. It was a long weary time, for the
boy was too ill to play, and the little rabbit
found it rather dull, with nothing to do all day long,

(31:26):
But he snuggled down patiently and looked forward to the
time when the boy should be well again, and they
would go out in the garden amongst the flowers and
the butterflies, and play splendid games in the raspberry thicket

(31:53):
like they used to, all sorts of delightful things he planned,
And while the boy lay half asleep, he crept up
close to the pillow and whispered them in his ear.

(32:15):
And presently the fever turned and the boy got better.
He was able to sit up in bed and look
at picture books, while the little rabbit cuddled close at
his side. And one day they let him get up

(32:42):
and dress. It was a bright sunny morning and the
windows stood wide open. They had carried the boy out
onto the balcony, wrapped in a shawl, and the little

(33:05):
rabbit lay tangled up among the bedclothes, thinking the boy
was going to the seaside tomorrow. Everything was arranged, and
now it only remained to carry out the doctor's orders.

(33:27):
They talked about it all while the little rabbit lay
under the bedclothes with just his head peeping out and listened.
The room was to be disinfected, and all the books

(33:49):
and toys that the boy had played with in bed
must be burnt. Hurrah, thought the little rabbit. Tomorrow we
shall go to the seaside. For the boy had often

(34:10):
talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much to
see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs
and the sand castles. Just then Nana caught sight of him.

(34:33):
How about his old bunny, she asked that, said the doctor.
Why it's a mass of scarlet fever germs burn it
at once? What nonsense? Get him a new one. He

(34:58):
mustn't have that anymore. And so the little rabbit

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The Velveteen Rabbit

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