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  • last year
by David Lennie
illustrated by Peter Kendall
Transcript
00:00The House That Sneezed. Author, David Lennie. Artist, Peter Kendall.
00:18The house at 17 Rosebury Street had always been spotlessly tidy and neat. But the people
00:25who'd kept it so clean for so long had sold it and moved out and now they were gone. The
00:31new people came and McNeese was their name. Their car was a mess and their clothes were
00:36the same. They couldn't have cared that the house was so clean for they left things untidy
00:42wherever they'd been. Then they noticed that there was a note with the keys. And the note
00:49said, Beware! Do not make this house sneeze! But they laughed when they mad what the little
00:57note said. Ha ha! said Mr. and Mrs. McNeese. Now that we've bought it we'll do what we
01:04please and whoever heard of a house that could sneeze? Then as soon as the house moving people
01:09were told they moved in the furniture moldy and old. The saucepans were rusted, the cushions
01:16were busted. The vases and pictures had never been dusted. Before they had lived there for
01:23very much time the house lost its neatness and cleanness and shine. And although they'd
01:29been warned the family McNeese did all sorts of things that might make a house sneeze.
01:35The man was a smoker who sat on the sofa surrounding himself in a cigarette haze. The room got
01:42so choked from the ash and the smoke that sometimes he was hidden for days and for days.
01:48Their cat carried fleas and deposited hairs on the carpets and curtains and couches and
01:54chairs. The dog was a monster with shaggy red fur. He knew where the best spots to gather
02:00dust were. He'd cover himself from his tail to his snout. Then run through the house just
02:08to shake it about. Sam was the girl's name was so was the boy's. The girl didn't cuddle
02:15her cuddly toys. She ripped out their fluff and she bit off their paws and she scattered
02:21their stuffing all over the floors. The boy had ten birds and a little pet mouse. They
02:28weren't in a cage they just roamed round the house. He fed them by throwing their food
02:33in the air. So breadcrumbs and birdseed went everywhere. The mother used powder to cover
02:40her face. She puffed it and fluffed it all over the place and them she used hairspray
02:46and armspray and airspray and flyspray and legspray and mouthspray and neckspray. All
02:53the rust and the dust and the feathers and hairs. All the breadcrumbs and stuffing from
02:58teddies and chairs. All the ash and the smoke and the powder and sprays made the house sneezy
03:04in terrible ways. The poor little house tried hard not to sneeze. But how could it help
03:12it with people like these? Ah ah ah. It started to shake. The family thought there must be
03:19an earthquake. Ah ah ah. The ceiling was lifted. The beds and the bookcases slided and shifted.
03:29Ah ah ah. The crockery quittered. Pictures and ornaments rattled and shivered.
03:36Run, said Mr. and Mrs. McNeese. It looks like the house is going to sneeze. The lights flickered
03:43on, the furniture hopped. Then all of a sudden. The trembling stopped. But just when they thought
03:52they'd been through the worst. It started again much worse than at first. Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
04:18They flew through the air and they sailed in the breeze.
04:21And they landed in bushes and branches of trees.
04:25As they picked themselves out of the bushes and trees.
04:29The family of Mr. and Miss Knees discussed the note that had come with the keys.
04:35But were sure they'd done nothing to make the house sneeze.
04:39Then they gathered their things and the house-moving men came and collected it all once again.
04:45And they moved far away from the house that had sneezed.
04:49They were very annoyed.
04:51But the house was quite pleased.
04:54The End.