I'm Gretchen Ribbon and this is a little happier.

So as I discussed on the happier podcast, I went through a long debate with my family about whether we should get a dog.

And of course we did get a dog, we got our dog Barnaby, and we just had the second anniversary of getting Barnaby.

It's hard to remember what life was like without him.

It seems like he's been with us forever.

And this thought, this observation reminded me of the final paragraph of a beautiful children's book that I love,

called The Animal Family.

This is a 1965 children's book by the poet and critic Randall Jarelle,

and it has breathtaking illustrations by Marie Sundak.

It is a beautiful, timeless, quiet book.

If your child has jangled nerves, read this book.

I simply cannot resist reading the first few lines to give you a sense of the book.

And the book opens once upon a time long, long ago where the forest runs down to the ocean.

A hunter lived all alone in a house made of logs he had chopped for himself,

and shingles he had split for himself.

The house had one room, and at the end closest to the ocean,

there was a fireplace of pink and gray and green boulders.

The hunter had carried them home in his arms, from the cliff where the forest ended.

So that gives you an idea of the book.

So the hunter lives all alone, and then one night he hears singing,

and he sees that it's a mermaid singing, and he makes friends with the mermaid,

and eventually the mermaid comes to live with him in his house made of logs.

...