Welcome to another bonus episode of Sleep Whispers, an extra treat for my Soak Plus members.

Tonight's story is The Garden of Paradise by Hans Christian Anderson.

Here is a summary

before I read the story to you.

It begins with a prince

who has heard about a land that is filled with beautiful flowers,

which is like, okay, big whoop-dy-doo.

But if you eat the flowers, then you will have instant wisdom about history, geography, mathematics, and other topics.

The prince ventures off to find this wondrous land, and he comes across a cranky old woman who is built like a bodybuilder.

That's not exactly how Hudson's Christian Anderson described her, but that's the vision I have of her.

She has four sons who have these super nature powers, and they each can travel around the world.

So he hitches a ride with one of them to the special land of paradise with those flowers of wisdom.

After a bit they arrive, with those flowers of wisdom.

After a bit they arrive, and a fairy warns him to behave,

or she'll bounce his butt right back to the cranky old woman who is built like a bodybuilder.

The ending, it's not happy and it's not sad. it is just realistic.

And I guess basically, it's an ancient allegory of human nature.

Now, this is probably a spoiler, but at the end, the prince gets a scolding by the cranky old bodybuilder woman.

That is quite precious.

Now, on to tonight's curious tale.

Tonight's story is the Garden of Paradise by Hans Christian Anderson.

There once was a king's son who had a large and beautiful collection of books.

...