Episode 15
Forty Stories - "Brave"
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 15Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 03:40 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:15
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. I really hate social media, and I don’t really want to pay for advertisements. That means, the only way to grow the audience of A Little English is…you. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. You guys must have done it the last couple weeks, because listeners are going up! Please keep going! I’m very grateful for the help!
This week’s story is about horses. Have you ever ridden a horse? I have. Actually, I grew up in the country and our neighbors had a horse boarding business. That means that rich people from Boston, who didn’t have any space to keep a horse, they would rent a spot for it from our neighbors. And then come ride them on weekends and stuff. So I grew up like right next to horses. They were around all the time. But I never got to ride those, because they were someone’s like private, luxury item.
Later, when I was a kid at camp (like we talked about last episode), I did learn to ride. We went for two or three or five-day camping trips, riding horses all over Colorado. I was probably 12 years old, and I just can’t believe how lucky I was that I got to do that. Man I gotta write a story about that camp, one of these days.
Anyway, let’s get to the story. It’s called “Brave,” and it has nothing to do with the animated movie. Sorry, nobody turns into a bear.
—-------------
“Careful now,” said Dad. “Don’t show him your fingers. He might think they’re little carrots and take a bite.”
Cassandra froze, terrified. “It’s OK,” the teacher said. “Just be careful. Turn your hand around and let him smell the back of it. Like with a dog.” Cassandra got a little closer. The horse was enormous, and it smelled like sweat and dust and grass. She took another step towards it and held out her hand.
The horse leaned its head in and sniffed her. Its breath was so loud! When it opened its mouth, Cassandra could hear the sound of its lips separating. When the mouth closed again, she could actually hear its teeth bang together. It was like hearing someone breathe or talk right next to your ear, except it wasn’t even that close!
Cassandra knew a lot about horses. She had a few books and a lot of youtube channels on her mom’s phone. She knew about bridles and saddles and she knew how to brush a horse’s fur after a ride. She knew that you start from the front and go to the back, never the other way. She knew how much horses love being brushed. But she didn’t know until today what they smell like. And she didn’t know how noisy they were.
The horse didn’t bite her. It breathed in and out over her hand until it decided she didn’t have any food, so it put its head down and searched the dusty floor for something to eat. Cassie reached up further and put her hand on its shoulder. The muscles moved under its skin. She was mesmerized.
“You wanna get up in the saddle?” asked the teacher. Cassie was pretty sure her name was Sarah. She shook her head. Dad frowned.
“Why not?”
“You said it’s gonna bite my fingers off.”
“Well, no, I said you gotta be careful. Are you scared?”
That was a difficult question to answer. Cassie thought about it for a minute. “Yes.”
“Well, what do we always say about being scared?”
They said it together. “You can’t be brave if you’re not afraid.”
Cassie nodded at this, and then reached up to the teacher. Sarah grabbed her under the armpits and lifted her into the saddle. This was very high up indeed. She was taller than the teacher. She was the biggest.
When the teacher patted the horse on the neck, it started to walk. Cassie couldn’t believe it. Her whole body leaned right, then left, as the horse put one foot in front of the other and made a slow circle of the barn.
“Faster,” said Cassie. Her Dad looked up from his phone in alarm.
“Sweetheart, there ain’t no need to go faster. You just got up on the damn thing.”
The teacher agreed with her Dad. She wanted her to go slow. Everyone wanted her to go slow, but Cassie knew a lot about horses.She knew how to make them go fast. So she raised her little hand up high, shouted, “YAA,” and got ready to slap the horse on its neck, until she felt Sarah gently but firmly holding her arm. Sarah was shaking her head and she looked very serious.
The horse did nothing. It just kept walking slowly along like nothing had happened. But now Dad had started walking towards them, yelling and waving his phone around. “Now, Cassie what did I just say to you? You can’t go around hitting a horse! I paid a lot of money for these lessons and you can’t just go off and whack these things. They’re very intelligent and beautiful creatures, Cassie, and they-”
and that’s when Dad tripped on something.
Maybe it was a rock or a piece of wood in the dust of the riding ring. But Dad tripped and fell, and when he fell, he made a lot of noise. His phone flew through the air, past Cassie’s face and it hit the horse right behind its left ear.
The horse made a surprised noise. Cassie knew that noise from youtube, but this was so much louder. She could feel it in her chest. Then the horse stood up on on its two back feet. Cassie leaned forward and wrapped her hands around the horse’s neck. The horse brought its two front feet back down with a crash. Dust flew up around Cassie and she couldn’t see.
Then the horse started running. It ran a full circle around the barn, and then another. Cassie held on to its mane, crying and screaming. Every galloping step threw her body into the air and every time she came crashing back down onto the saddle. She held on until she couldn’t feel her fingers any more. It seemed like a thousand years before the horse slowed down and finally stopped.
Sarah the teacher and Dad arrived at the same time. Both breathing heavily and asking her if she was ok. Cassie just cried and cried and cried. Sarah held the horse while Dad pulled Cassie down and held her until she calmed down.
“I wanna get back on,” she said, as soon as she had blown her nose and wiped her tears. “I wanna get back on.”
“No way,” said her Dad. “Your momma’s already gonna kill me when she hears about this. If you get back on that thing, and then something else bad happens, it’s gonna be the end of ol Robbie Nash. She’ll kill me deader than a-”
“Are you afraid?”
“Hell yes, I’m afraid! I’m afraid you’re gonna get hurt and then I’m gonna get even more hurt, by your mom!”
“Well,” said Cassie, very seriously, “What did you tell me about being afraid?”
“You can’t be brave unless you’re afraid.” They said it together.
“Man, you’re not supposed to turn those things around on me like that. You know? I’m supposed to be teaching you lessons, kid.”
“So get on with me. We’ll both ride.”
Dad just stood there, staring at her for a minute.
“Yeah ok, we’ll both ride. Sure no big deal. We’ll just both go for a little pony ride.”
“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand.
“Yeah.”
—
What do you think? Was Cassandra brave? Could you be that brave? You remember Cassie, and Robbie, from our other stories. At least Robbie is spending this weekend with his family, right? But I thought he was an actor in a play. Aren’t theater actors like, really busy on weekends? Hmmmmm weird. I guess we will have to check back in on that play. Maybe things aren’t going too well?
Anyway let’s get to the tiny lessons.
The Big Picture has lots of running horses in it, that’s for sure.
I’d like to know why you think that Cassie was NOT afraid at the end, but Robbie was. Take a minute and go back and think about it. If you’re a parent you already know. It’s because kids are dumb. I mean, Cassie is a smart kid, but kids have no real sense of danger. Not like adults do. And Robbie, he just saw his kid almost die, because he did a stupid thing. Every parent knows that fear. I sure do.
And the Dictionary Disco? Feel like a boogie?
Both of our vocabulary words today are horse vocabulary. So kind of specialized, but not too crazy. And they’re both actually kinda useful for people, too.
So a mane is the horse’s hair. The long skinny line of hair that goes down its neck. That’s the mane. A male lion also has a mane. And so you could say that a person has a mane of hair, if it’s kind of wild looking and…animalistic.
Similarly, a gallop is a special kind of running that horses do. You know, you’ve seen an Indiana Jones movie. When the horses go really really fast, they are galloping. Technically it’s when they go so fast that all four feet come off the ground at once. But again you can use it for people. When someone is running like a horse? Say they’re galloping. It sounds better.
And the melody moment?
Let’s talk about plosives. I think we already did, but that was almost a year ago, so it’s ok. Plosives are wild. Sounds like explode, right? Because that’s what you do. You make a little explosion with your lips. A little POP of air comes out. So for p and t and k, and their voiced friends, B and D and G, you gotta make a little bit of air shoot out. You can test it. Just put your hand in front of your mouth and try it. Say P, B whatever. If you can literally feel the little explosion on your hand, you’re doing it right!
Let’s do the credits!
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 15 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcript
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a favor. I really hate social media, and I don’t really want to pay for advertisements. That means, the only way to grow the audience of A Little English is…you. If you’re enjoying the show, and you think it’s helping you learn, please go tell someone about it. You guys must have done it the last couple weeks, because listeners are going up! Please keep going! I’m very grateful for the help!
This week’s story is about horses. Have you ever ridden a horse? I have. Actually, I grew up in the country and our neighbors had a horse boarding business. That means that rich people from Boston, who didn’t have any space to keep a horse, they would rent a spot for it from our neighbors. And then come ride them on weekends and stuff. So I grew up like right next to horses. They were around all the time. But I never got to ride those, because they were someone’s like private, luxury item.
Later, when I was a kid at camp (like we talked about last episode), I did learn to ride. We went for two or three or five-day camping trips, riding horses all over Colorado. I was probably 12 years old, and I just can’t believe how lucky I was that I got to do that. Man I gotta write a story about that camp, one of these days.
Anyway, let’s get to the story. It’s called “Brave,” and it has nothing to do with the animated movie. Sorry, nobody turns into a bear.
—-------------
“Careful now,” said Dad. “Don’t show him your fingers. He might think they’re little carrots and take a bite.”
Cassandra froze, terrified. “It’s OK,” the teacher said. “Just be careful. Turn your hand around and let him smell the back of it. Like with a dog.” Cassandra got a little closer. The horse was enormous, and it smelled like sweat and dust and grass. She took another step towards it and held out her hand.
The horse leaned its head in and sniffed her. Its breath was so loud! When it opened its mouth, Cassandra could hear the sound of its lips separating. When the mouth closed again, she could actually hear its teeth bang together. It was like hearing someone breathe or talk right next to your ear, except it wasn’t even that close!
Cassandra knew a lot about horses. She had a few books and a lot of youtube channels on her mom’s phone. She knew about bridles and saddles and she knew how to brush a horse’s fur after a ride. She knew that you start from the front and go to the back, never the other way. She knew how much horses love being brushed. But she didn’t know until today what they smell like. And she didn’t know how noisy they were.
The horse didn’t bite her. It breathed in and out over her hand until it decided she didn’t have any food, so it put its head down and searched the dusty floor for something to eat. Cassie reached up further and put her hand on its shoulder. The muscles moved under its skin. She was mesmerized.
“You wanna get up in the saddle?” asked the teacher. Cassie was pretty sure her name was Sarah. She shook her head. Dad frowned.
“Why not?”
“You said it’s gonna bite my fingers off.”
“Well, no, I said you gotta be careful. Are you scared?”
That was a difficult question to answer. Cassie thought about it for a minute. “Yes.”
“Well, what do we always say about being scared?”
They said it together. “You can’t be brave if you’re not afraid.”
Cassie nodded at this, and then reached up to the teacher. Sarah grabbed her under the armpits and lifted her into the saddle. This was very high up indeed. She was taller than the teacher. She was the biggest.
When the teacher patted the horse on the neck, it started to walk. Cassie couldn’t believe it. Her whole body leaned right, then left, as the horse put one foot in front of the other and made a slow circle of the barn.
“Faster,” said Cassie. Her Dad looked up from his phone in alarm.
“Sweetheart, there ain’t no need to go faster. You just got up on the damn thing.”
The teacher agreed with her Dad. She wanted her to go slow. Everyone wanted her to go slow, but Cassie knew a lot about horses.She knew how to make them go fast. So she raised her little hand up high, shouted, “YAA,” and got ready to slap the horse on its neck, until she felt Sarah gently but firmly holding her arm. Sarah was shaking her head and she looked very serious.
The horse did nothing. It just kept walking slowly along like nothing had happened. But now Dad had started walking towards them, yelling and waving his phone around. “Now, Cassie what did I just say to you? You can’t go around hitting a horse! I paid a lot of money for these lessons and you can’t just go off and whack these things. They’re very intelligent and beautiful creatures, Cassie, and they-”
and that’s when Dad tripped on something.
Maybe it was a rock or a piece of wood in the dust of the riding ring. But Dad tripped and fell, and when he fell, he made a lot of noise. His phone flew through the air, past Cassie’s face and it hit the horse right behind its left ear.
The horse made a surprised noise. Cassie knew that noise from youtube, but this was so much louder. She could feel it in her chest. Then the horse stood up on on its two back feet. Cassie leaned forward and wrapped her hands around the horse’s neck. The horse brought its two front feet back down with a crash. Dust flew up around Cassie and she couldn’t see.
Then the horse started running. It ran a full circle around the barn, and then another. Cassie held on to its mane, crying and screaming. Every galloping step threw her body into the air and every time she came crashing back down onto the saddle. She held on until she couldn’t feel her fingers any more. It seemed like a thousand years before the horse slowed down and finally stopped.
Sarah the teacher and Dad arrived at the same time. Both breathing heavily and asking her if she was ok. Cassie just cried and cried and cried. Sarah held the horse while Dad pulled Cassie down and held her until she calmed down.
“I wanna get back on,” she said, as soon as she had blown her nose and wiped her tears. “I wanna get back on.”
“No way,” said her Dad. “Your momma’s already gonna kill me when she hears about this. If you get back on that thing, and then something else bad happens, it’s gonna be the end of ol Robbie Nash. She’ll kill me deader than a-”
“Are you afraid?”
“Hell yes, I’m afraid! I’m afraid you’re gonna get hurt and then I’m gonna get even more hurt, by your mom!”
“Well,” said Cassie, very seriously, “What did you tell me about being afraid?”
“You can’t be brave unless you’re afraid.” They said it together.
“Man, you’re not supposed to turn those things around on me like that. You know? I’m supposed to be teaching you lessons, kid.”
“So get on with me. We’ll both ride.”
Dad just stood there, staring at her for a minute.
“Yeah ok, we’ll both ride. Sure no big deal. We’ll just both go for a little pony ride.”
“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand.
“Yeah.”
—
What do you think? Was Cassandra brave? Could you be that brave? You remember Cassie, and Robbie, from our other stories. At least Robbie is spending this weekend with his family, right? But I thought he was an actor in a play. Aren’t theater actors like, really busy on weekends? Hmmmmm weird. I guess we will have to check back in on that play. Maybe things aren’t going too well?
Anyway let’s get to the tiny lessons.
The Big Picture has lots of running horses in it, that’s for sure.
I’d like to know why you think that Cassie was NOT afraid at the end, but Robbie was. Take a minute and go back and think about it. If you’re a parent you already know. It’s because kids are dumb. I mean, Cassie is a smart kid, but kids have no real sense of danger. Not like adults do. And Robbie, he just saw his kid almost die, because he did a stupid thing. Every parent knows that fear. I sure do.
And the Dictionary Disco? Feel like a boogie?
Both of our vocabulary words today are horse vocabulary. So kind of specialized, but not too crazy. And they’re both actually kinda useful for people, too.
So a mane is the horse’s hair. The long skinny line of hair that goes down its neck. That’s the mane. A male lion also has a mane. And so you could say that a person has a mane of hair, if it’s kind of wild looking and…animalistic.
Similarly, a gallop is a special kind of running that horses do. You know, you’ve seen an Indiana Jones movie. When the horses go really really fast, they are galloping. Technically it’s when they go so fast that all four feet come off the ground at once. But again you can use it for people. When someone is running like a horse? Say they’re galloping. It sounds better.
And the melody moment?
Let’s talk about plosives. I think we already did, but that was almost a year ago, so it’s ok. Plosives are wild. Sounds like explode, right? Because that’s what you do. You make a little explosion with your lips. A little POP of air comes out. So for p and t and k, and their voiced friends, B and D and G, you gotta make a little bit of air shoot out. You can test it. Just put your hand in front of your mouth and try it. Say P, B whatever. If you can literally feel the little explosion on your hand, you’re doing it right!
Let’s do the credits!
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 15 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Chiba, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
