Jack Frost and the Man on the Moon

Slip into a winter tale where Jack Frost takes a sleigh on a moonlit glide through frost ferns and into the silver night. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams. 

The music in this episode is A Little Bit of Heaven by Johannes Bornlof. 

Sign up for the Holiday Special on Patreon!

Transcript

Jordan : 0:20

Welcome to Dreamful Podcast, Bedtime Stories for Slumber. I would like to start this episode by thanking our newest supporter, Danielle Jackson. Thank you so much, Danielle, and I hope you have the sweetest of dreams. If you'd like to support the show and gain access to the subscriber-only episodes, while receiving a shout-out, visit dreamfulstories.com and on the support page, find a link to become a BuzzBrout supporter, or subscribe via Supercast if you listen on Spotify. I am also opening up my Patreon tiers once again for subscriptions. And there is a special tier I've highlighted for the holidays. If you subscribe to the holiday special tier, I will send you a handwritten card from me with a sticker and you get a special shout out in our Christmas episode. You still have about another week to sign up for the holiday special on Patreon. So if you'd like to do that, tap the holiday special link in the show notes to sign up. I can tell winter is finally coming. And the way I can tell is because there's a lovely glistening layer of frost across my lawn this morning, and I realized I haven't told a story yet featuring one of my favorite characters in folklore, Jack Frost. I dug up a lovely book with a chapter called Jack Frost and the Man on the Moon. So, snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams. He was very cold, and he felt funny and hot all over. Mother, my throat's got a rubber ball stuck in it, he said. Mother looked at it. No dear, there's no rubber ball there, but your throat's all swollen, and there are little spots in it. You mustn't get up today. Marmaduke lay very still for a while. Soon he heard sleigh bells tinkling past the window, then far down the road. Father had hitched Teddy, the buckskin horse, to the big sleigh and was going for the doctor. Marmaduke began to feel very sleepy. Once, twice, thrice, nodded Marmaduke's head. The red flames of the fire kept dancing dancing all the time. Very bright looked the little sleigh at the foot of the bed. Very brave the tiny reindeer. But look, something moved just a little. The nigh little reindeer was stamping his foot and tossing his antlers, and the other little reindeer tossed his horns and stamped his foot too. On their backs the sleigh bells jingled merrily like fairy bells. The red and blue sleigh moved a little, just a little. It began to slide slowly over the comforter. Marmaduke was worried. He didn't want the pretty sleigh and the reindeer to run away. He might never see them again. Wait, he shouted. Whoa, you villains. It was a strange little voice that ordered the reindeer. The red and blue sleigh stopped short. Marmaduke rubbed his eyes. The strange little voice spoke again. Jump in, it said. And there in the front seat of the toy sleigh sat a funny little chap, about as big as the toyman's thumb, no bigger. He wore a pointed cap that shone like tinsel on a Christmas tree. He wore a white coat that sparkled too. Who are you? asked the little sick boy. That's my sleigh. You shan't run off with it. And the funny voice under the white cap answered Jump in then and take a ride. Tell me who you are first, Marmaduke insisted. My name's Jack. Jack what? Jack Frost. You ought to know that. Tinkle Tinkle went the bells. The reindeer lifted their hooves higher and pawed at the comforter. They shook their antlers impatiently. The little driver jumped up and down in the seat as if he were sitting on pins and needles. More worried than ever was Marmaduke. How can I get in that sleigh? he asked the imp of a stranger. I'm too big. The little chap only chuckled. It was a very mischievous chuckle. Then he said Take a good look at yourself. Marmaduke did. My how he shrunk. He was no bigger than a brownie, no bigger himself than the toy man's thumb. How did that happen? he said. Oh the dream fairy did that, said Jack. She likes to play tricks on people. It's lots of fun. But shake a leg. With that, he shook the reins himself, and the bells jingled again, and the reindeer more eager every second, snorting impatiently. Once more, Marmaduke looked down at himself. No, his eyes had made no mistake. He was small enough now to sit on that little red seat with the tiny driver. So he popped out from the covers. The folds of the blanket looked as big as mountains, the lumps of the comforter as high as the hills. Over them he scrambled, and he sprawled till he reached the little red and blue sleigh. Then he jumped in. The driver could be very impudent, but he took good care of Marmaduke just the same. For the boy had been very sick and might catch cold. So Jack pulled the white robe over his passenger's knees and tucked him in all snug and warm. Giddy up, he called to the tiny reindeer. Marmaduke was frightened. What a horrible crush there would be when they slid from the high bed to the floor. But nothing like that happened at all. Away off the bed, over the bright rag carpet, and past the red fire. Safely and swiftly they trotted. Below the window they paused. Pretty silver ferns and trees covered the panes and sparkled in the firelight. The window was closed, but that did not matter at all. Up with you, ill Jack Frost. Slowly, as if by magic, up went the window sash. Over the sill galloped the reindeer, and after them ran the toy sleigh, with Jack Frost and Marmaduke on the red seat. Over the porch too they went, and something did happen. Now look at yourself, said Jack Frost, cracking his whip. Marmaduke did not hear him at first. He was admiring that whip. It was only a long icicle, and all Jack had to do was to touch the reindeer with his point, to make them run faster and faster. Look at yourself, he repeated. Marmaduke obeyed. Why, I'm as big as I used to be. Jack laughed and replied. Yes, the sleigh had grown as large as his father's sleigh. The reindeer as big as Teddy, the buckskin horse. The tossing horns were as high as the reindeers in the zoo. And Jack Frost was as big as his brother's now. I'm sorry that Jehoshaphat and Hebaziah are not along, said Marmaduke to himself. He looked ahead through the trees. Up over the hill the snow path stretched, up to the dark blue sky and the stars. Millions of them were there, and they were all twinkling at him. And the old man the moon, just over the hill, kept winking at him too. Jack Frost turned to Marmaduke. Where would you like to go? Marmaduke didn't need to think. He had his answer already. I'd like to visit the old man the moon. But old yellow horns and prancing hoof are fast goers. Giddy up, he shouted at them, touching their flanks with the icicle whip. So fast they went that they scarcely seemed to touch the snow, and on up the hill they rode towards the laughing man in the moon. Marmaduke looked up at the moon, sailing far above them, and the old man, sitting there on the moon mountain, nodded to Jack. Now the sleigh reached the top of the hill, just where it touches the sky. Surely there they would stop. But no. This sleigh can run on air just as well as on snow, the odd little driver explained. Another touch of the icicle whip, a jingle of bells, a snort from the reindeer, and they were off all through the air towards the moon. Marmaduke looked down. The houses had shriveled all up, the trees were as small as plants in the garden. He looked down again. The earth was far below them. By the white steeple of the church they flew. In the steeple was a little window. The bell rope hung out. Jack jerked it as they went past. Ding dong, something's wrong. So spoke the deep voice of the old bell. He was a hundred years old, and such strange things had never happened in his life before. And the minister threw up his window and stuck his head out. And the minister's wife stuck her head in her nightcap out of the window too. And the sexton ran out in the snow to see what was the matter. And all the other people in the farmhouses and in the townhouses threw up their windows or ran out of doors to see where the fire was. Then, after looking all around the houses and barns and the haystacks, they looked up at the sky and saw Marmaduke in the sleigh racing towards the moon. They were very funny, like little toy people, all looking up and pointing at the sky, and all shouting at once. Then a still stranger and funnier sight he saw all the animals on top of the hill, horses, dogs, cows, the sheep, the pigs, the ducks, the geese and the turkeys, all sitting on their haunches, and barking or neighing or howling or squawking at Marmaduke, as on up and up he went, assailing through the sky. But he missed his little pet doggy Wiener Wurst. Where could he be? He was worried about that until all of a sudden he heard a little bark and looked behind, and there on the red rudder, hanging on for dear life, was little Wiener Wurst. Marmaduke reached down and picked him up by the scruff of his neck and set him on his lap so that he wouldn't catch cold. His little pink tongue hung out in delight as they raced toward the moon. They hadn't gone more than a hundred miles or so when something strange floated past them, a cloud all puffy and soft and white, like the floating islands and the puddings mother makes. The reindeer nearly ran into it. That would have been too bad, for the sleigh would have torn it in two. And as they passed, Marmaduke saw little baby angels lying there, curled up in the cloud, fast asleep, with their wings folded. Ahead of them lay another island, but this one was round and flat and shiny like a gold shield, with a little hill in the center, and there upon the hill sat a jolly old man, round and fat, with a pipe in his mouth and a sack on his back. Hello, old top, said Jack Frost. Good evening, you mischief maker, replied the man in the moon. What are you up to now? Oh I've brought one of the little earth children to see you. This is Marmaduke. He's been sick, so I thought I'd give him a ride. Oh that's it. You do do someone a good turn now and then after all. Then the old man turned to Marmaduke. Powdy, he said, I hope you'll get better very soon. Thank you, replied Marmaduke politely. He was so well brought up that he didn't forget his manners, even high in the sky. Well, here's something to play with when you get back to Earth, said the old man in the moon, and he reached his hand inside the sack on his back and pulled out a fistful of bright gold pennies. Oh such a lot of them. Marmaduke reached for them, but alas, he was in too much of a hurry, and down they spilled out of his hand, and rolled right over the edge of the moon, down through the sky they dropped, past the stars and the clouds, down to earth. There were all the animals still on the top of the hill, looking up at the moon, and one of the bright pennies landed on black eyes Susan's nose. She was a timid old cow, and she was startled, and she was still more frightened at the howling, the barking, the squawking, which the animal set up, one and all. So frightened was she that she jumped. So hard did she jump that she leapt way over the hill and over the clouds and the stars. There's that critter again, complained the man in the moon. On with her tail spread out behind her, and her legs sprawling in the sky, came old black-eyed Susan, straight toward them. Jack Frost and Marmaduke jumped back. The old man the moon moved a little too. They were afraid she would land on their toes. He was sitting up in the bed in the very own bed by the red fire. It was not the drink of the dream fairies after all. But it was alright. For at the foot of the bed rested the little red and blue light and the tiny reindeer. Just as Adele as Adele could be.