Horton Hears A Who! by Dr Seuss

Hi, my name is Dave Edgren, and I'm gonna have a go at reading Horton Hears a Who. Dr. Seuss is all about having a go. Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. For my great friend Mitsugi Nakamura of Kyoto, Japan. On the 15th of May, in the jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing, enjoying the jungle's great joys, when Horton the elephant heard a small noise. So Horton stopped splashing. He looked toward the sound. That's funny, thought Horton. There's no one around. Then he heard it again, just a very faint yelp, as if some tiny person were calling for help. I'll help you, said Horton. But who are you?

Where?

He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there but a small speck of dust blowing past through the air. "I say," murmured Horton, "I've never heard tell of a small speck of dust that is able to yell. So you know what I think? Why, I think that there must be someone on top of that small speck of dust. Some sort of creature of very small size. Too small to be seen by an elephant's eyes." Some poor little person who's shaking with fear that he'll blow in the pool. He has no way to steer. I'll just have to save him because after all, a person's a person, no matter how small. So gently and using the greatest of care, the elephant stretched his great trunk through the air. And he lifted the dust speck and carried it over and placed it down safe on a very soft clover. "Humph!" humphed a voice. 'Twas a Sour Kangaroo, and the young Kangaroo in her pouch said, "Humph!" too. "Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin! A person on that?" Why, there never has been. Believe me, said Horton, I tell you sincerely. My ears are quite keen and I heard him quite clearly. I know there's a person down there. And what's more, quite likely there's two, even three, even four. Quite likely a family, for all that we know. A family with children just starting to grow. So please, Horton said, as a favor to me, Try not to disturb them. Just please let them be. I think you're a fool, laughed the sour kangaroo. And the younger kangaroo in her pouch said, me too! You're the biggest blame fool in the jungle of Nool. And the kangaroos plunged in the cool of the pool. What a terrible splashing, the elephant frowned. I can't let my very small person get drowned. I've got to protect them. I'm bigger than they. So he plucked up the clover and hustled away. Through the high jungle treetops, the news quickly spread. He talks to a dust speck. He's out of his head. Just look at him walk past that speck on that flower. And Horton walked worrying almost an hour. Should I put the speck down? Horton thought with alarm. If I do, these small persons may come to great harm. I can't put it down, and I won't. After all, a person's a person, no matter how small. Then Horton stopped walking. The speck voice was talking. The voice was so faint he could just barely hear it.

Speak up, please, said Horton.

He put up He put his ear near it.

"My friend," came the voice, "you're a very fine friend. You've helped all us folks on this dust speck no end. You've saved all our houses, our ceilings and floors.

You've saved all our churches and grocery stores." "You mean," Horton gasped, "you have buildings there too?" "Oh yes!" piped the voice.

"We most certainly do!" "I know!" called the voice. "I'm too small to be seen, but I'm Mayor of a town that is friendly and clean. Our buildings to you would seem quite terribly small, but to us who aren't big, they are wonderfully tall. My town is called Whoville, for I am a Who, and we Whos are all thankful and grateful to you." And Horton called back to the Mayor of the Town, "You're safe now, don't worry.

I won't let you down." But just as he spoke to the Mayor of the Speck, three big Jungle Monkeys climbed up Horton's neck. The Wickersham Brothers came shouting, "What rot!

This elephant's talking to Whos who are not! They aren't any Whos!" And they don't have a Mayor!

And we're going to stop this nonsense, so there! They snatched Horton's clover. They carried it off to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff, a mighty strong eagle and very swift wing, and they said, "Will you kindly get rid of this thing?" And before the poor elephant could even speak, The eagle flew off with the flower in its beak. All that late afternoon and far into the night that black-bottomed bird flapped his wings in fast flight, while Horton chased after with groans over stones that tattered his toenails and battered his bones, and begged, "Please don't harm all my little folks, who have much as right to live as us bigger folks do." But far, far beyond him, that eagle kept flapping and over his shoulder called back, "Quit your yapping!

I'll fly through the night through. I'm not— I'm a bird. I don't mind it.

And I'll hide this tomorrow where you'll never find it." At 6:56 the next morning, he did. It sure was a terrible place that he hid it. He let the small clover drop somewhere inside of a great patch of clovers 100 miles wide. "Find that!" sneered the bird. "But I think you will fail." And he left with a flip of his black-bottomed tail. "I'll find it!" cried Horton. "I'll find it or bust! I shall find my friends on my small speck of dust!" And clover by clover by clover with care he picked up and searched them and called, "Are you there?" But clover by clover by clover he found that the one that he sought was just not around. And by noon poor old Horton, more dead than alive, had picked, searched, and piled up 9,005. Then on through the afternoon, hour after hour, till he found them at last on the 3 millionth flower. "My friends!" cried the elephant.

"Tell me, do tell, are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole?

Are you well?" From down on the speck came a voice, came the voice of the Mayor.

We've really had trouble, much more than our share. When that black-bottom birdie let go and we dropped, we've landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped. Our teapots are broken, our rocking chairs smashed, and our bicycle tires all blew up when we crashed. So Horton, please, pleaded the voice of the Mayor's, will you stick by us Whos while we're making repairs?

Of course, Horton answered. Of course I will stick. I'll stick by you small folks through thin and through thick. Humph, humphed a voice. For almost 2 days you've run wild and insisted on chatting with persons who never existed. Such carryings-on in our peaceable jungle. We've had quite enough of your bellowing bungle, and I'm here to state snapped the big kangaroo, that your silly nonsense of good game is all through. And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, me too. With the help of the Wickersham brothers and dozens of other uncles and Wickersham cousins and Wickersham in-laws whose help I've engaged, you're going to be roped and you're going to be caged. And as for your Dust speck?

Ha!

That we shall boil in a hot steaming kettle of Beezelnut Oil.

"Boil it?" gasped Horton. "Oh, you can't do!

It's full of persons! They'll prove it to you!" "Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Mayor!" Horton called.

"Mr. Mayor, you've got to prove now that you really are there! So call a big meeting, get everyone out, make everyone hoo!" Make every Who holler, make every Who shout, make every Who scream. If you don't, every Who is going to end up in Beezle Nut stew.

And down on the dust speck, the scared little Mayor quick called a big meeting in Whoville Town Square.

And his people cried loudly, they cried out in fear. —"We are here, we are here, we are here, we are here!" The elephant smiled.

"That was clear as a bell. You kangaroos surely heard that very well." "All I heard," snapped the big kangaroo, "was the breeze and the faint sound of wind through the far distant trees. I heard no small voices, and you didn't either." And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "Me neither." Grab him, they shouted, and cage the big dope. Lasso his stomach with 10 miles of rope. Tie the knots tight so he'll never shake loose. Then dunk the dumb speck in the beezlenut juice. Horton fought back with great vigor and vim, but the Wickersham gang was too many for him. They beat him, they mauled him, they started to haul him into his cage, but he managed to call to the Mayor.

Don't give up! I believe in you all! A person's a person, no matter how small, and you very small persons will not have to die if you make yourselves heard. So come on now, try!

The Mayor grabbed a tom-tom. He started to smack it, and all over Whoville they whooped up a racket. They rattled tin kettle metals. They beat on brass pans, on garbage pail tops, and on old cranberry cans. They blew on bazookas and blasted great toots on clarinets, oompahs and boompahs, and flutes. Great gusts of loud racket rang high through the air. They rattled and shook the whole sky. And Mayor called up through the howling mad hullabaloo, hey Horton, How's this?

Is our sound coming through?

And Horton called back, I can hear you just fine, but the kangaroo's ears aren't as strong quite as mine. They don't hear a thing. Are you sure all your boys are doing their best, and are they all making noise? Are you sure every Who down in Whoville is working? Quick, look through your town. Is there anyone shirking? Through the town rushed the Mayor from the east to the west, but everyone seemed to be doing his best. Everyone seemed to be yapping and yipping. Everyone seemed to be beeping and bipping.

But it wasn't enough, all this ruckus and roar.

He had to find someone to help him make more. He raced through each building. He searched floor to floor. And just as he felt he was getting nowhere and almost about to give up in despair, He suddenly burst through a door and that mayor discovered one shirker quite hidden away. In the Fairfax Apartments, Apartment 12J, a very small, very small shirker named JoJo was standing, just standing and bouncing a yo-yo, not making a sound, not a yip, not a chirp. And that mayor rushed inside and he grabbed the young twerp. And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.

This, cried the mayor, is your town's darkest hour, the time for all Whos who have blood that is red to come to the aid of their country, he said. We've got to make noises in greater amounts, so open your mouth, lad, for every voice counts.

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top, the lad cleared his throat and shouted out, "Yup!" And that yop, that one small extra yop, put it over. Finally, at last, from that speck on that clover, their voices were heard. They rang out clear and clean, and the elephant smiled. You see what I mean? They've proved they are persons, no matter how small. And their whole world was saved by the smallest of all. How true! Yes, how true! said the big kangaroo. And from now on, you know what I'm planning to do? "From now on, I'm going to protect them with you." And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, "Me too!

From sun in the summer, from rain when it's fallish, I'm going to protect them no matter how smallish."