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

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May you all have pleasant dreams.

This episode is brought to you by our Patreon supporters and by A Quite Contrary Mary.

Tonight, we'll read the opening to The Secret Garden, a novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett, first published in

1911.

Set in England, it is now one of Burnett's most popular novels and seen as a classic of English

children's literature. During Burnett's life, the secret garden was overlooked,

but the book has risen in prominence as more scholarly studies

have been done on children's literature.

If you enjoy the secret garden, be sure to listen to a little princess on Snuscast, also written by Burnett. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body. Relax your body into the softness of your bed.

Now, take a few deep breaths.

Chapter 1, there is no one left.

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misslethwaite Manor to live with her uncle,

everybody said she was the most disagreeable looking child ever seen.

It was true too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair, and a sour expression.

Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow, because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another.

Her father had held a position under the English government and had always

...