Oh, I'm going to be. Welcome to the newscast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep.

Find us on Snusscast.com and follow us on social media and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Our current goal is to get to 100 written reviews on the podcast app to help new

listeners find us. If you haven't subscribed and written a review yet,

please do. We get closer to our goal every week. Your reviews continue to amaze us and we learn from your feedback as well.

So thank you for taking the time to share.

This episode is supported by Stone Masonry.

Tonight, we'll read the opening to A Flute and A Shore,

A Nautical Fiction novel by James Fenamore Cooper, published in 1844.

Set at the turn of the 19th century, the novel follows the maritime adventures of Miles Wallingford Jr.

The son of wealthy New York landowners who chooses to go to see after the death of his parents.

The novel is partially autobiographical in part by Cooper's own experiences as a sailor.

Throughout his career, Cooper wrote profusely, with the objective of countering European prejudices and nurturing an original American

art and culture. Let's get cozy. Close your body.

eyes.

Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths.

A float and ashore and ashore, chapter one. A float and ashore, Chapter 1.

I was born in a valley, not very remote from the sea.

My father had been a sailor in youth, and some of my earliest recollections are connected with the history of his

adventures and the recollections they excited.

He had been a boy in the War of the Revolution and had seen some service in the

shipping of that period. Among other scenes he witnessed. He had been on board the Trumbull in her action with the Watt, the hardest

...