Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host. Every week, I will read you

an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you, and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I will be reading an old English fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

A long, long time ago,

when most of the world was young,

and folks did what they liked because all things were good,

there lived a boy called Jack.

His father was bedridden, and his mother, a good soul, was busy early morns and late

eaves, planning and placing how to support her sick husband and her young son by selling the milk and butter, which

milky white, the beautiful cow, gave them without stint, for it was summertime.

But winter came on, the herbs of the fields took refuge from the frosts in the warm earth.

And though his mother sent Jack to gather what fodder he could get in the hedgerows,

he came back as often as not with a very empty sack.

For Jack's eyes were so often full of wonder at all the things he saw,

that sometimes he forgot to work.

So it came to pass that one morning, Milky White gave no milk at all, not one drop.

...