The Tales of Peter Rabbit & Friends - A Beatrix Potter Bedtime Story

(00:00:00) Welcome to Rest
(00:00:49) Introducing tonight's story
(00:02:26) The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
(00:12:42) The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter

Fall asleep to two Beatrix Potter stories: The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.

Read softly and slowly, these tales will calm your mind and help you find rest. Curl up, close your eyes, and let these familiar, nostalgic stories carry you toward sleep.

If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate and leave a comment, it really goes a long way to help the podcast🌞

NEW episodes are released weekly! Every Tuesday at 6PM (GMT).

Watch, listen and comment on this episode on the Rest YouTube channel!

Support us:

• Rate the show on Spotify and leave comments on your favourite episodes
• Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Connect with Us:

• Stay up to date with all our latest news on our Website and Instagram.
• Got a question or thoughts to share? contact us here. 

Music from Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/oliver-massa/gentle-awareness
License code: XBJ0XVTOKURV9PVY
https://uppbeat.io/t/tranquilium/gentle-resonance
License code: 9CVITFMLXZ66918G

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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. The day is

(00:51):
done now, the world has quieted, and this is your
time to rest. So settle in, let your body grow still,
and allow your breath to fall into a soft, steady rhythm.

(01:12):
Tonight we're opening the pages of two classic tales by
Beatrix Potter, two little adventures set in sun dappled woods
and mossy river banks, where rabbits wear jackets and squirrels
dance through the trees. First we'll meet Peter Rabbit, a

(01:39):
curious little bunny who can't seem to stay out of trouble.
And then we'll join squirrel Nutkin, a bald, mischievous squirrel
with a love of riddles and a knack for getting
into all sorts of scrapes. There's no need to follow

(02:03):
every word of tonight's story. Just let the rhythm of
the tails carry you. You can drift soften and let
sleep find you at any moment. And now let's begin

(02:24):
tonight's story, the tale of Peter Rabbit. Once upon a
time there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy,

(02:45):
cotton Tail, and Peter. They lived with their mother in
a sandbank underneath the root of a very big fir tree. Now,
my DearS, said old missus Rabbit, one morning, you may

(03:06):
go into the fields or down the lane, but don't
go into mister McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there.
He was put in a pie by missus McGregor. Now
run along and don't get into mischief. I am going out.

(03:31):
Then old missus Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella
and went through the wood to the baker's. She bought
a loaf of brown bread and five currant buns. Flopsy, Mopsie,

(03:51):
and Cottontail, who were good little bunnies, went down the
lane to gather blackberries. But Peter, who was very naughty,
ran straight away to mister McGregor's garden and squeezed under
the gate. First he ate some lettuces and some French beans,

(04:19):
and then he ate some radishes, and then, feeling rather sick,
he went to look for some parsley. But round the
end of a cucumber frame. Whom should he meet but
mister MacGregor. Mister MacGregor was on his hands and knees

(04:45):
planting out young cabbages. But he jumped up and ran
after Peter, waving a rake and calling out stop thief.
Peter was most dreadfully frightened. He rushed all over the garden,

(05:08):
for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.
He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and
the other shoe amongst the potatoes. After losing them, he
ran on four legs and went faster, so that I

(05:31):
think he might have got away altogether if he had
not unfortunately, run into a gooseberry net and got caught
by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a
blue jacket with brass buttons. Quite new. Peter gave himself

(05:55):
up for lost and shed big tears. But his sobs
were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him
in great excitement and implored him to exert himself. Mister
MacGregor came up with a sieve which he intended to

(06:19):
pop upon the top of Peter, but Peter wriggled out
just in time, leaving his jacket behind him, and rushed
into the toolshed and jumped into a can. It would
have been a beautiful thing to hide in if it

(06:43):
had not had so much water in it. Mister McGregor
was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the toolshed,
perhaps hidden underneath a flower pot. He began to turn
them over, carefully, looking under each. Presently Peter sneezed cutcheu.

(07:13):
Mister McGregor was after him in no time and tried
to put his foot upon Peter, who jumped out of
a window, upsetting three plants. The window was too small
for mister McGregor, and he was tired of running after Peter.

(07:37):
He went back to his work. Peter sat down to rest.
He was out of breath and trembling with fright, and
he had not the least idea which way to go. Also,

(07:57):
he was very damp with sitting in that can. After
a time he began to wander about, going lippity lippity,
not very fast, and looking all round, he found a

(08:19):
door in a wall, but it was locked, and there
was no room for a fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath.
An old mouse was running in and out over the
stone doorstep, carrying peas and beans to her family in

(08:43):
the wood. Peter asked her the way to the gate,
but she had such a large pea in her mouth
that she could not answer. She only shook her head
at him. Peter began to cry. Then he tried to

(09:06):
find his way straight across the garden, but he became
more and more puzzled. Presently he came to a pond
where mister mac gregor filled his water cans. A white
cat was staring at some goldfish. She sat very, very still,

(09:33):
but now and then the tip of her tail twitched
as if it were alive. Peter thought it best to
go away without speaking to her. He had heard about
cats from his cousin, Little Benjamin Bunny. He went back

(09:57):
towards the tool shed, but suddenly, quite close to him,
he heard the noise of a hoe. Scritch, scratch, scratch, scritch.
Peter scuttered underneath the bushes, but presently, as nothing happened,

(10:22):
he came out and climbed upon a wheelbarrow and peeped over.
The first thing he saw was mister McGregor hoeing onions.
His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was

(10:43):
the gate. Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow
and started running as fast as he could go along
a straight walk behind some black currant bushes. Mister McGregor

(11:03):
caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did
not care. He slipped underneath the gate and was safe
at last in the wood outside the garden. Peter never
stopped running or looked behind him till he got home

(11:27):
to the big fir tree. He was so tired that
he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on the
floor of the rabbit hole and shut his eyes. His
mother was busy cooking. She wondered what he had done

(11:51):
with his clothes. It was the second little jacket and
pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a fortnight.
I am sorry to say that Peter was not very
well during the evening. His mother put him to bed

(12:14):
and made some camer Mile tea, and she gave a
dose of it to Peter one table spoonful to be
taken at bedtime. But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had bread

(12:35):
and milk and blackberries for supper. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.
This is a tale about a tail. A tail that
belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

(13:01):
He had a brother called Twinkleberry, and a great many cousins.
They lived in a wood at the edge of a lake.
In the middle of the lake there is an island
covered with trees and nut bushes, and amongst those trees

(13:26):
stands a hollow oak tree, which is the house of
an owl who is called Old Brown. One autumn, when
the nuts were ripe and the leaves on the hazel
bushes were golden and green, Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all

(13:51):
the other little squirrels came out of the wood and
down to the edge of the lake. They made little
rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the
water to owl Island to gather nuts. Each squirrel had

(14:15):
a little sack and a large ow, and spread out
his tail for a sail. They also took with them
an offering of three fat mice as a present for
Old Brown, and put them down upon his doorstep. Then

(14:37):
Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low
bow and said politely, old mister Brown, will you favor
us with permission to gather nuts upon your island. But

(14:57):
Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up
and down like a little red cherry, singing, riddle me,
riddle me, rot tote tote a little wee man in

(15:19):
a red red coat, a staff in his hand, and
a stone in his throat. If you'll tell me this riddle,
I'll give you a groat. Now this riddle is as
old as the hills. Mister Brown paid no attention whatever

(15:44):
to Nutkin. He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.
The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts and sailed
away home in the evening. But next morning they all

(16:05):
came back again to our island, and Twinkleberry and the
others brought a fine fat mole and laid it on
the stone in front of old Brown's doorway, and said,
mister Brown, will you favor us with your gracious permission

(16:29):
to gather some more nuts? But Nutkin, who had no respect,
began to dance up and down, tickling old mister Brown
with a nettle and singing, Old mister b Riddle, Merie,

(16:52):
hitty pity within the wall, hitty pity without the wall.
If you touch hitty pity, hitty pity will bite you.
Mister Brown woke up suddenly and carried the mole into

(17:13):
his house. He shut the door in Nutkin's face. Presently,
a little thread of blue smoke from a wood fire
came up from the top of the tree, and Nutkin
peeped through the keyhole and sang, a house full, a

(17:38):
hole full, and you cannot gather a bowlful. The squirrels
searched for nuts all over the island and filled their
little sacks. But Nutkin gathered oak apples, yellow and scarlet,

(18:00):
and sat upon a beech stump, playing marbles and watching
the door of old mister Brown. On the third day,
the squirrels got up very early and went fishing. They
caught seven fat minnows as a present for old Brown.

(18:24):
They paddled over the lake and landed under a crooked
chestnut tree on Owl Island. Twinkleberry and six other little
squirrels each carried a fat minnow. But Nutkin, who had
no nice manners, brought no present at all. He ran

(18:51):
in front singing. The man in the wilderness said to me,
how many strawberrrees grow in the sea? I answered him,
as I thought, good, as many red herrings as grow
in the wood. But old mister Brown took no interest

(19:17):
in riddles, not even when the answer was provided for him.
On the fourth day, the squirrels brought a present of
six fat beetles, which were as good as plums in
plum pudding for Old Brown. Each beetle was wrapped up

(19:43):
carefully in a dock leaf, fastened with a pine needle pin.
But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever Old mister b
riddle me ree, flower of England, fruit of Spain, met

(20:06):
together in a shower of rain, put in a bag
tied round with a string. If you'll tell me this riddle,
I'll give you a ring. Which was ridiculous of Nutkin

(20:26):
because he had not got any ring to give to
Old Brown. The other squirrels hunted up and down the
nut bushes, but Nutkin gathered Robin's pincushions of a briar
bush and struck them full of pine needle pins. On

(20:52):
the fifth day, the squirrels brought a present of wild honey.
It was so sweet and sticky that they licked their
fingers as they put it down upon the stone. They
had stolen it out of a bumblebee's nest on the

(21:15):
tippity top of the hill. But Nutkin skipped up and down, singing,
hum a bum buzz buzz, hum a bum buss. As
I went over Tipple Tyne, I met a flock of

(21:39):
bonnie swine, some yellow nacked, some yellow backed. They were
the very bonniest swine that air went over Tipple Tine.
Old mister Brown turned up his eyes in disgust at

(22:02):
the impertinence of Nutkin, but he ate up the honey.
The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts, but Nutkin
sat upon a big flat rock and played nine pins

(22:23):
with a crab apple and green fur cones. On the
sixth day, which was Saturday, the squirrels came again for
the last time. They brought a new laid egg in
a little rush basket as a last parting present for

(22:47):
Old Brown. But Nutkin ran in front, laughing and shouting.
Humpty Dumpty lies in the beck with the white counterpane
round his neck. Forty doctors and forty rights cannot put

(23:09):
Humpty dumpty to rights. Now old mister Brown took an
interest in eggs. He opened one eye and shut it again,
but still he did not speak. Natkin became more and

(23:34):
more impertinent. Old mister b Old, mister b Hickamore hackamore
on the King's kitchen door. All the King's horses and
all the king's men couldn't drive hickamore hack a more

(23:59):
on the King's kitchen door. Nutkin danced up and down
like a sunbeam. But still Old Brown said nothing at all.
Nutkin began again, Arthur O Bauer has broken his band.

(24:26):
He comes roaring up the land. The King of Scots,
with all his power, cannot turn Arthur of the bower.
Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the wind,

(24:46):
and he took a running jump right onto the head
of Old Brown. Then all at once there was a fly,
and a scufflement, and a loud squeak. The other squirrels

(25:09):
scuttered away into the bushes. When they came back, very cautiously,
peeping round the tree, there was Old Brown sitting on
his doorstep, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if

(25:31):
nothing had happened. But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket.
This looks like the end of the story, but it isn't.
Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house and held him

(25:53):
up by the tail, intending to skin him. But Nutkin
pull so very hard that his tail broke in two,
and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of
the attic window. And to this day, if you meet

(26:19):
Nutkin up a tree and ask him a riddle, he
will throw sticks at you and stamp his feet and
scold and shout, cuck, cuck, cuck, curcuck.