Nicola Stephenson - Sally's Secret CBeebies Bedtime Stories

Oh, hello. I'm Nicola.

The teddies and I are just having a cup of tea before bedtime.

Are you ready for a story?

Great. This is one of my favourite.

It's called Sally's Secret and it's by Shirley Hughes.

Once, there was a little girl called Sally who liked making houses.

She made them in all sorts of places-

behind curtains, under tables,

inside boxes and under umbrellas.

Sometimes, she took some fruit and some biscuits to eat in her house.

Then, she would make a little bed inside and pretend to go to sleep.

Often, some tidy person would come along and spoil one of

Sally's houses by mistake and she would have to begin all over again.

It was very annoying.

One day, Sally found a secret house which nobody knew about.

It was in a bush at the bottom of the garden.

There was a hole in it just right for a front door

and inside were leafy walls and room in the middle

for Sally to stand up straight.

The floor was of earth and it smelt lovely.

Sally fetched her own little chair.

Then she brought her best rose pattern tea set

with all the handles still on it.

She swept the floor with a branch

and made a little path of stones up to the front door.

Then, Sally ran to ask her mother

if she could have some tea to take into her secret house.

Mother gave her some plums

and tiny biscuits with pink and white icing

and some real milk and lump sugar for the tea set.

Sally set out all the things in her house.

She arranged the plums and biscuits on some big leaves

and bunches of flowers in a jam jar.

When everything was ready, it looked elegant.

Sally was so pleased,

she didn't want her secret house to be secret any more.

She wanted to show it to somebody.

Her friend, Rose, was in the next-door garden,

playing in her sandpit.

"Come and have a tea party in my secret house," said Sally.

Rose said she would come if she could dress up.

So, Sally showed Rose her secret house and they had a tea party.

Rose looked very smart in a hat and shawl

and Sally poured out and asked, "Do you take sugar?"

They talked about babies,

just like a grown-up ladies.

When all the plums and biscuits were eaten

and only the crumbs were left,

they heard a swishy noise outside the house.

Someone was coming.

It was a striped cat.

She came into the house and sniffed all the tea cups.

Then, she rubbed her soft head against Sally's legs

and walked proudly out again.

A little while later, a brown bird

fluttered in through their front door.

He looked at them with his head on one side.

Sally and Rose sat very still.

He hopped about, ate some crumbs,

and then, off he went.

The last visitor was a ladybird

hurrying across one of the leaf plates.

"That's one, two, three, four visitors

"I've had in my secret house,"

said Sally, counting on her fingers.

"Let's stay here for ever," said Rose.

But they couldn't, because it was bedtime.

And that story was called Sally's Secret.

It's time for you to go to bed, too, now.

Hope you sleep tight.

I'll be back soon to tell you another bedtime story.

Now, I'd better tidy up my tea set

so it's ready to play with again tomorrow.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd