The Happy Family

Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a
dock leaf. If one holds it before one it is
like a whole apron. And if one holds it over
one's head in rainy weather, it is almost as good
as an umbrella, for it is so immensely large. The
burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one, there

(00:22):
always grows several. It is a great delight. And all
this delightfulness is snail's food. The great white snails, which
persons of quality in former times made frickases of and
ate and said, hmm, how delicious, For they thought it
tasted so delicate, lived on dock leaves, and therefore burdock

(00:44):
seeds were sown. Now there was an old manor house
where they no longer ate snails. They were quite extinct,
But the burdocks were not extinct. They grew and grew
all over the walks and all the beds. They could
not get the mastery over them. It was a whole
forest of burdocks here, and there stood an apple and

(01:07):
a plum tree or else. One never would have thought
that it was a garden. All was burdocks. And there
lived the last two venerable old snails. They themselves knew
not how old they were, but they could remember very
well that there had been many more, that they were
of a family from foreign lands, and that for them

(01:29):
and theirs, the whole forest was planted. They had never
been outside it. But they knew that there was still
something more in the world, which was called the manor House,
and that there they were boiled, and then they became black,
and were then placed on a silver dish. And what
happened further they knew not or in fact, what it

(01:51):
was to be boiled or to lie on a silver dish.
That could not possibly imagine, but it was said to
be delightful and particularly genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads,
nor the earthworms, whom they asked about it, could give
them any information. None of them had been boiled or
laid on a silver dish. The old white snails were

(02:13):
the first persons of distinction in the world. That they
knew the forest was planted for their sake, and the
manor House was there that they might be boiled and
laid on a silver dish. Now they lived a very
lonely and happy life, and as they had no children
themselves they had adopted a little common snail, which they
brought up as their own. But the little one would

(02:35):
not grow, for he was of a common family. But
the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought that they
could observe how he increased in size, and she begged father,
if he could not see it, that he would at
least feel the little snail's shell, And that he felt
it and found the good Dame was right. One day

(02:58):
there was a heavy storm of rain. Hear how it
beats like a drum on the dock leaves, said Father snail.
There are also rain drops, said mother snail. And now
the rain pours right down the stalk. You will see
that it will be wet there. I am very happy
to think that we have our good house, and the

(03:19):
little one has also his. There is more done for
us than for all other creatures, sure enough, But can
you not see that we are the folks of the
quality in the world. We are provided with a house
from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted for
our sakes. I should like to know how far it extends,

(03:40):
and where there is outside there is nothing at all,
said father snail. No place can be better than ours,
and I have nothing to wish for, Yes, said the Dame,
I would be willing to go to the manor house,
be boiled and laid on a silver dish. All our
forefathers have been treated so well. There is something extraordinary

(04:02):
in it. You may be sure the manor house has
most likely fallen to ruin, said father Snail, Or the
burdocks have grown up over it so that they cannot
come out. There need not, however, be any haste about that.
But you are always in such a tremendous hurry, and
the little one is beginning to be the same. Has

(04:23):
he not been creeping up the stalk all these three days?
It gives me a headache when I look up to him.
You must not scold him, said mother Snail. He creeps
so carefully he will afford us much pleasure. And we
have nothing but him to live for. But have you
not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife
for him? Do you not think that there are some

(04:46):
of our species at a great distance in the interior
of the Burdock forest Black snails? I dare say there
are enough of said the old one. Black snails without
a house. But they are so common, and so can seated,
But we might give the ants a commission to look
out for us. They run to and fro as if
they had something to do. And they certainly know of

(05:09):
a wife for our little snail. I know one, sure enough,
the most charming ones, said one of the ants. But
I am afraid we shall hardly succeed. For she is
a queen. That is nothing, said the old folks. Has
she a house, She has a palace, said the ant,
the finest ant's palace with seven hundred passages. I thank you,

(05:31):
said mother snail. Our son shall not go out into
an ant hill. If you know nothing better than that.
We shall give the commission to the white gnats. They
fly far and wide, and rain and sunshine. They know
the whole forest here, both within and without. We have
a wife, form, said the gnats. At a hundred human
paces from here, there sits a little snail in her

(05:52):
house on a gooseberry bush. She is quite lonely and
old enough to be married. It is only one hundred
human paces. Well, then let her come to him, said
the old ones. He has a whole forest of burdocks,
she has only a bush. And so they went and
fetched little miss snail. It was a whole week before

(06:13):
she arrived, but therein was just the very best of it,
for one could see that she was of the same species.
And then the marriage was celebrated six earthworms shown as
they all could in other respects. The whole went off
very quietly, for the old folks could not bear noise
and merriment. But old Dame Snail made a brilliant speech.

(06:36):
Father Snail could not speak. He was much too affected,
and so he gave them as a dowry and inheritance
the whole forest of burdocks, and said what they had
always said, that it was the best in the world,
and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied,
they and their children would once in the course of time,

(06:57):
come to the manor house, be boiled black and laid
on silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old
ones crept into their shelves and never came more out
they slept. The young couple governed in the forest and
had a numerous progeny, but they were never boiled and
never came on the silver dishes. So from this they

(07:20):
concluded that the manor house had fallen to ruins, and
that all the men in the world were extinct, and
as no one contradicted them, so of course it was so.
And the rain beat on the dock leaves to make
drum music for their sake, and the sun shone in
order to give the Burdock forest a color for their sakes.

(07:41):
And they were very happy, and the whole family was
happy for they indeed were so end of the happy family.