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The Kind-Hearted Pea – Transcript

Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great.

I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for beginners. The name of the story is The Kind-Hearted Pea. You can find a transcript of the episode at EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Pea, where you can also download the episode as a PDF.

Today’s story is adapted from a book called Storyworld. The original story comes from Malta, and was collected by Saviour Pirotta. But, as usual, when I wrote my version, I changed things a bit.

OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.

Someone who is kind-hearted is very kind, very nice. They have a kind heart. Kind-hearted people will sit and listen to your problems and try to help you solve them, for example.

Peas are a small green vegetable. You eat lots of peas at once because they are so small. In the UK, people often buy frozen peas and then put them in the freezer, because frozen peas are very convenient to cook. Peas grow in pods. Pods are long, flat things that grow on some plants. In each pea pod, there are usually about three peas. When the pod is finished growing, you take it off the plant, open it and take the peas out. Some pods can be eaten, for example runner bean pods.

Harvest is the time of year when crops – food that is grown on a farm – is collected. During the year, farmers grow crops, for example tomatoes, potatoes and rice, and then during harvest time they harvest, they collect, the food. In the past, harvest time was a very important time of the year, and everyone would work together to collect the harvest. Nowadays, harvesting is often done by machines.

When the wind blows, it goes whoosh whoosh. If the wind is blowing very strongly, it can be hard to walk around. In autumn, the wind blows leaves around.

When you drop something, it might not break, but it might get a crack in it. A crack is when something is almost broken but not fully broken. If you have a crack in a glass, you can’t use the glass because the water will fall through the crack. If you have a crack in the wall of your house, then the wind will blow through the crack and it will get cold. Some people believe that it is bad luck to walk on cracks in the street. They say, ‘Step on a crack and you’ll break your back.’

If you can afford something, then you have enough money to buy it. Usually, we talk about not being able to afford something. For example, I can’t afford to buy a house. In fact, most people my age can’t afford to buy a house!

Shoo is a word you say to children and animals to make them go away. Shoo! For example, if you are eating lunch in the park and a bird is coming very close to you, the bird might try and take your food. So you can say ‘Shoo!’ and move your arms to make the bird go away – you shoo the bird away.

When you water a plant, you give it water. Usually, you take a watering can and fill it with water, and then you use the watering can to water your plants. If you water your plants too often or too little, they might die.

When something is shaped like something else, it has the same shape, the same appearance as it. For example, most cakes are round, but maybe you get a special cake that is shaped like a star. Or maybe you buy a card for Valentine’s day, and the card is shaped like a heart.

OK, so listen and enjoy!

The Kind-Hearted Pea

Once, there was a pea pod. The pea pod grew on a long pea plant. One day, when it was harvest time, the farmer came and cut the pea plant, and the pea pod fell down. The pod opened and the three peas inside woke up.

‘Oh, the world is so big!’ said the first pea.

‘Oh, the world is so beautiful!’ said the second pea.

‘Oh, I am scared!’ said the third pea. ‘The world is too big and too beautiful! I want to sleep in my pod.’

But then a wind blew and talked to the peas.

‘Peas, peas,’ said the wind. ‘I can carry you! I can take you to interesting places. Where do you want to go?’

‘I want to go to the sun!’ said the first pea.

So the wind blew the pea up into the sky. The pea flew through the clouds and the pea flew into the stars. The pea saw the world and it was amazing!

But then the pea got close to the sun, and it was very hot. It was too hot for the pea.

‘Oh, kind-hearted wind, I think I want to go –’

BANG! And the pea was gone.

The wind blew back down to the pea pod and spoke to the second pea. ‘I have taken your friend to the sun!’ it said. ‘Now, where do you want to go?’

‘I want to be a queen!’ said the second pea.

So the wind blew the pea to a castle. The pea flew onto the queen’s chair. The pea watched all the people, and the pea said, ‘Aha! I am the queen! I am queen pea!’

But then the real queen came and sat down, and the real queen was much bigger than the pea. SPLAT! And the pea was gone.

The wind blew again, and went back to the third pea. ‘Where do you want to go?’ it asked. ‘Maybe to the bottom of the sea?’

‘Hmm,’ said the pea. ‘I don’t want to see the sun or the stars, and I don’t want to be a queen. I just want to help people. Take me somewhere where I can help.’

‘Very well,’ said the wind.

So the wind blew the pea to a house. The pea flew into a crack by a window. The pea didn’t understand why the wind had taken it to the crack. How could it help in this place? Then the pea heard people talking inside the house.

There was a boy in bed, and his mother and a doctor were standing beside the bed. The boy was very ill.

‘He isn’t getting better,’ said the doctor. ‘He needs a reason to live. Give him something interesting, something that will make him want to live. Maybe some books? Or he could draw?’

‘I can’t afford it,’ said the mother. ‘It’s already hard for me to afford his food and medicine. I can’t afford books and paper and pens as well.’

‘Well…’ said the doctor. ‘Good luck.’

The doctor left and the mother looked very sad. The pea felt her sadness, but it didn’t know how it could help.

For a few weeks, the pea slept. It dreamed about the boy. Sometimes, it rained on the pea. The pea knew it couldn’t help, and it felt bad about it, so all it wanted to do was sleep.

Then, one day, something changed. All that rain had done something to the pea, and the pea felt a change. It hurt a little, but in a good way. The pea wanted to move, but it couldn’t move – it was just a pea! But it tried and tried to move, to grow, and then – POP!

Suddenly, the pea was not just a pea – it was a plant! It could move and grow, and it was excited to see what it would become. It had made a little home in the crack, and now it was going to be a beautiful… something!

‘Look, Mum!’ said the boy. ‘There’s a plant growing in this crack!’

That’s me! thought the pea.

And the boy loved the pea plant. He sat by it all day. When the birds tried to eat it, he shooed them away. ‘Shoo, shoo!’ When it didn’t rain, the boy watered the pea plant. And slowly, the boy started to get better. The mother and the doctor were very happy.

The boy got tired of always shooing the birds away, so he put cardboard around the plant to keep the birds away. He went and got fresh, clean water and watered the plant every day. If any of the leaves went brown, he took away the brown leaves. Sometimes, his mum tried to look at the plant, and he shooed her away.

‘Mum, go away! You’re taking the pea’s light.’

Now that little pea who wanted to help people was just a small part of the plant. And the pea was growing old and tired. The plant was big now, and soon it would be time to harvest it.

So the boy’s mother got a bowl and said, ‘Go and harvest the peas, and we’ll have pea soup for dinner.’

The boy took the pea pods from the plant. But when he opened the pods, he saw that there were not normal peas inside – the peas were shaped like hearts!

‘Mum, Mum!’ he said, and he showed her the peas. ‘The peas are shaped like hearts! Oh, I loved that kind-hearted pea plant, and that kind-hearted pea plant loved me as well… I don’t think I can eat these peas. They’re too special.’

So they didn’t cook the heart-shaped peas. They went into the garden and planted the peas in the ground. Just like before, the boy looked after the plants. He shooed away the birds and watered the plants every day. The plants grew big and strong, and the boy did as well.

Of course, peas grow much better in a garden than in a crack by the window. But it was the boy’s love, and the help of the kind-hearted pea, that made the garden so special.

Every pea that grew there was shaped like a heart, and people began to be interested in them. When the boy’s mother was old and couldn’t work, he started selling the peas. The boy and his mother were never rich, but they could always afford what they needed, and that was all that mattered.

THE END

Are you ready to take your English from Great to AMAZING? Then you should take classes with me! In my online lessons, we’ll work through the problems that are holding you back, and write personalised stories that will have you laughing your little boots off. To book a class, go to Calendly.com/ArielGoodbody and to find out more go to EasyStoriesInEnglish.com/Classes. See you soon, future student!

Image Attributions

Photo of peas by Artie Kostenko on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/green-round-fruits-in-close-up-photography-Sgnhru4-z78

Photo of pea pod by Rachael Gorjestani on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/shallow-focus-photography-of-green-pea-on-brown-wooden-surface-XlA2994Txhw

Photo of a crack by Brina Blum on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/crack-on-white-concrete-surface-nqttZgQZFyc?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash

Photo of a watering can by David Ballew on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/water-pouring-on-gray-steel-watering-can-P7saq8j11pM?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash

Photo of field (in thumbnail) by Federico Respini on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-field-near-tree-during-daytime-sYffw0LNr7s?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash