Pip and the Hatbox of Yawns
In the middle of the meadow there was a duck pond. Beside the duck pond there was a signpost. It was so crooked that it pointed everywhere at once.
Every evening, Old Badger sat under the signpost with his hatbox. He kept his hat on his head. He kept the meadow’s yawns in the hatbox.
The yawns were soft and grey and the size of plums. Each one smelled a little of warm milk. At bedtime every animal in the meadow came and took one. They popped it open, and they yawned, and then they were sleepy, and off they went to bed.
But tonight Old Badger was going to visit his sister. So tonight a young hedgehog called Pip was in charge.
Pip had never been in charge of anything before, except a pebble, once.
“Mind the holes in the lid,” said Old Badger. “I poked them with a knitting needle. Yawns go stale without air.”
“Holes,” said Pip. “Air. No stale yawns.”
Old Badger pinned a list to the hatbox in large letters. Then he said, “Thank you for minding them, Pip.”
Pip curled up into a tight, prickly ball. He always did that when anyone said thank you. He could not help it.
Old Badger waited for him to uncurl. Then he patted the hatbox and set off down the lane.
Pip wanted to do this job right. He counted on his paws. One yawn for Goose. One for each of the rabbits. One for each of the ducks. One for the mole. And last of all, one for Pip. Then the whole meadow would be asleep before Old Badger came home.
He read the list out loud to the hatbox, in case the yawns needed to know the rules too.
“One yawn each,” read Pip, “and none for keeps.”
The yawns lay very still in the box. Pip took that to mean yes.
Goose came first. Goose was very loud, and she said everything twice.
“Pip! Pip!” said Goose. “May I have a yawn? May I have a yawn? Please, please!”
Nobody had ever said please to Pip twice before. He was so pleased that his nose went pink. He forgot all about the list. He pushed the whole hatbox across the grass to Goose.
“Here you are,” said Pip.
Goose was so happy that she gave the hatbox a big hug with both wings.
Pop! went the yawns. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop! Every single one, all at once.
Goose opened her beak very wide.
“HAAA-AWWW!” said Goose. “HAAA-AWWW!”
Goose’s yawns always came out in twos. And a whole hatbox of yawns is a great many yawns for one goose.
Pip looked in the hatbox. It was empty.
“Oh,” said Pip.
He held the box up under Goose’s beak. “Could you put some back?” he said. “Just the spare ones?”
Goose yawned right into the box. “HAAA-AWWW! HAAA-AWWW!” But a yawn that has been yawned is only air. It drifted straight out through the knitting-needle holes, and that was that.
Pip read the list again, very slowly.
“One yawn each,” read Pip, “and none for keeps.”
He had given every yawn in the meadow to one goose.
The moon came up over the duck pond, and the rest of the meadow came for their yawns. The rabbits came hopping. The ducks came waddling. The mole came up out of the ground, nose first.
“Where are our yawns?” said Rabbit.
Pip showed them the empty hatbox.
So nobody went to bed. The rabbits played leapfrog in the moonlight. The ducks went round and round the pond, quack, bump, quack, bump, into each other. The mole dug a hill, and then another hill, and then a little hill on top of that one.
Goose was much too busy yawning to go to sleep.
Pip sat under the crooked signpost with his chin on his paws. He had so wanted to get it right.
Rabbit flopped down beside him. Goose sat down next to Rabbit. She opened her beak very wide.
“HAAA-AWWW!” said Goose. “HAAA-AWWW!”
And Rabbit yawned too. It was a big, slow, floppy-eared yawn, and Rabbit did not mean to do it at all.
Pip sat up. He read the list one more time.
“One yawn each,” read Pip, “and none for keeps.”
Then he jumped to his feet. “None for keeps!” said Pip. “Goose, come with me.”
He looked at the signpost to see which way to go first. The signpost pointed everywhere at once.
“Everywhere, then,” said Pip.
So Pip walked Goose all round the meadow.
At the rabbit holes, Goose yawned at every door, two yawns at a time. The rabbits yawned back. Their ears went flop.
“Pass it on!” said Pip, and Rabbit hopped down to the pond and yawned at the ducks. The ducks yawned one after the other, all along the bank.
The ducks waddled over to the molehills and yawned down the holes. The mole yawned the biggest yawn of all and sat right down in the middle of the molehill.
“Good night! Good night!” said Goose. She tucked her head under her wing, and at last she was asleep.
Old Badger came home up the lane with the moon behind him.
The meadow was quiet. It smelled a little of warm milk. The rabbits were asleep in their holes. The mole was asleep in the molehill. Goose was asleep by the pond. Only the ducks were still awake, sitting in a row on the bank, yawning one after another down the line.
Pip was waiting under the signpost with the empty hatbox.
“I’m glad you’re home,” said Pip. “I gave all the yawns to Goose. She said please twice.”
Old Badger looked at the sleeping meadow. He looked at the empty hatbox. He smiled.
“A yawn in a box puts one animal to bed,” said Old Badger. “A yawn passed on puts the whole meadow to bed.”
Then he said, “Thank you, Pip.”
Pip curled up into a ball.
Down on the bank, the very last duck yawned and went to sleep. Old Badger caught that yawn and gave a big, slow badger yawn of his own. And inside his prickly ball, Pip yawned too.
Every yawn in the meadow had gone to somebody. The very last one had gone to Pip.
He stayed just as he was, round and warm, beside the empty hatbox. And there he fell asleep, with the whole meadow asleep around him.