Season's creating circle round fans. To celebrate the season of giving, we hope you'll consider

giving to WBUR, the NPR station that makes circle round possible. When you make a contribution

to WBUR, we'll give you a thank you gift of your choice, like the adorable new lion stuffed

animal, as well as our picture books, tote bags, t-shirts, water bottles, we've even designed

some special holiday gift bundles for the circle round fans in your life. Grown-ups head

to www.orgslashcircleround and click circle round swag. Thank you and happy holidays!

Produced by the iLab at WBUR Boston.

Think about the last time you opened your ears and listened. Oftentimes the best thing we

can do for the people we cherish is listen to them. We can hear them out as they tell

us how their day was, how they're feeling, what they're thinking. In today's tale, we'll

find out what a wonderful gift a good listener can be.

I'm Rebecca Sheer and welcome to Circle round, where story time happens all the time. Today

our story is called the Friend Ship. Versions of this tale originally come from the island

of Japan. Some really great people came together to bring you our adaptation of this

folktale, including Kara Patterson, who stars in the Disney Plus series Turner and Hooch.

You Broadway fans may have seen her breakout performance as the only female in the 2017

Tony Award winning play, Jitney.

So Circle round everyone, for the Friend Ship.

Long, long ago, at the tippy, tippy top of a steep, steep hill, there grew a tree. It

was a tall tree. Its branches stretching so high they nearly brushed to the clouds. It

was a thick tree too. With a trunk so broad it would take you a good five minutes just

to walk around it. Far below the tree, at the bottom of one side of the steep, steep hill,

...