Horton Hears A Who - Haley Castillo

Horton the elephant hears a small noise and realizes it's a tiny person calling for help on a speck of dust. He decides to save them because "a person's a person, no matter how small." The sour kangaroo and other animals mock Horton, but he remains determined. Horton's clover with the speck is taken by eagles, and he searches for it in a vast field of clovers. Despite searching through thousands of clovers, he doesn't find it by noon. On the 15th of May, in the jungle of Newell's, 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 a creature of very small size, too small to be seen by an elephant's eyes. Some poor little person who's shaking with fear to help 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, humped the voice, t'was 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 young kangaroo in her pouch said, Me, too. You're the biggest playing fool in the jungle and all. And the kangaroos plunged in the cool of the pool. What terrible splashing, the elephant frowned. I can't let my very small persons 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 with that speck on that flower. And Horton walked, worrying almost an hour. Should I put this 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 puts 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 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. There aren't any Whos, and they don't have a mayor, and we're going to stop all this nonsense. So there! They snatched Horton's clover. They snatched Horton's clover. They carried it off to a black-bottomed eagle named Vlad Vladikoff, a mighty strong eagle of a very swift wing, and they said, Will you kindly get rid of this thing? And before the poor elephant even could speak, that eagle flew off with the flower in his 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 as much 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 the night through. I'm a bird. I don't mind it. And I'll hide this tomorrow where you'll never find it. And at 6.56, the next morning, he did it again. And at 6.56, the next morning, he did it. It sure was a terrible place that he hid it. He let that small clover drop somewhere inside of a great patch of clovers a hundred 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 for was just not around. And by noon, poor old Horton, more dead than alive, had picked, searched, and piled up 9,005.