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.

Occasionally, we will run ads in order to cover the costs of the production of the podcast.

Rest assured, there will be no ads during or after the story.

If you prefer an ad-free and intro-free show, you can join Just Sleep Premium.

Visit Just Sleeppodcast.com slash support for more information.

A quick welcome to the new members of Just Sleep Premium,

Rainbow, Kirsten, Nicole, Jean, and Allison.

I have some new content coming for premium members in the next few months,

which is really exciting. I will tell you more very soon. Tonight, I will be reading a short story

from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonderbook, The Three Golden Apples.

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

Did you ever hear of the golden apples that grew in the garden of the hisperides ah those were such apples as would bring a great price by the bushel

if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of nowadays but there is not i suppose a graft of that wonderful fruit on a single tree in the wide world.

Not so much as a seed of those apples exists any longer.

And even in the old, old, half-forgotten times, before the garden of the Hesperides was overrun with weeds,

a great many people doubted

whether there could be real trees that bore apples of solid gold upon their branches.

All had heard of them, but nobody remembered to have seen any.

Children, nevertheless, used to listen, open-mouthed, to the stories of the golden apple tree,

and resolved to discover it when they should be big enough.

...