Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Night Before Thanksgiving - A Cozy & Calm Bedtime Story

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with a bell to get alerts on all new free content. Thank you. Have you ever gazed in wonder at the Great Pyramid? Have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun? Or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti?

Starting point is 00:01:21 If you have, you'll probably like The History of Egypt podcast. Every week, we explore tales of this ancient culture. The History of Egypt is available. wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. Hi, welcome to Sleep Cove, the podcast for a great night's sleep. With me, Christopher Fitton. Tonight, I have a very moving and heartwarming Thanksgiving tale, called The Night Before Thanksgiving by Sarah Orne Duet. Tells the story of Mrs. Rob, who has a heart of gold, but might be having Thanksgiving alone this year.

Starting point is 00:02:16 Will her adopted son return, or will the owner of the pool house take her away? We'll have to listen to see what her fate is. I found this book in the private members' library I often work from. The book is from 1899 and is beautifully a beautiful. leather bound with some nice engraving and letter work. I'll leave a link in the description to the video of me finding it. I'll also leave a link for the music free version that will be available on my YouTube Bedtime Story Channel and my podcast called Mysteries at Midnight. So let's begin. The night before Thanksgiving.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Sarah on duet Chapter 1 There was a sad heart In a low-storied Dark little house That stood humbly by The roadside Under some tall alms

Starting point is 00:03:28 Small as her house was Old Mrs. Robb Found it too large For herself alone She only needed the kitchen and a tiny bedroom that led out of it and there still remained

Starting point is 00:03:47 the best room and a bedroom with the low garret overhead. There had been a time after she was left alone where Mrs. Rob could help those

Starting point is 00:04:03 who were poorer than herself. She was strong enough not only to do a woman's work, inside her house, but almost a man's work outside in her piece of garden ground. At last, sickness and age had come hand in hand, those two relentless enemies of the poor, and together they had wasted her strength and substance. She had always been looked up by her neighbours as being independent. But now she was left, lame-footed and lame-handed, with a debt to carry, and her bare land, and the house ill-provisioned to stand the siege of time.

Starting point is 00:04:57 For a while, she managed to get on, but at last it began to be whispered about that there was no use for anyone so proud. It was easier for the whole town to care for her than for a few neighbours, and Mrs. Rob had better go to the poor house before winter and be done with it. At this terrible suggestion, her brave heart seemed to stand still. The people whom she cared for most happened to be poor, as she could no longer go into their houses to make herself of use. The very elves, overhead, seemed to say, oh no, as they groaned in their late autumn winds, and there was something appealing even to the strange passerby

Starting point is 00:05:59 in the look of the little grey house, with Mrs. Rob's pale-wired face at the window. Chapter 2 Someone has said that anniversaries are days to make other people happy in, but sometimes when they come they seem to be full of shadows, and the power of giving joy to others, that inedable right which ought to lighten the saddest heart, the most indifferent sympathy.

Starting point is 00:06:39 Sometimes even this, seems to be withdrawn. So Paul, Old Mary and Rob sat at her window on the afternoon before Thanksgiving and felt herself poor and sorrowful indeed. Across the frozen road she looked eastward

Starting point is 00:07:00 over a great stretch of cold and meadowland, brown and wind-swept and across by icy ditches. It seemed to her, as if before this, in all the troubles that she had known and carried, there had always been some hope to hold, as if she had never looked, poverty full in the face, and seen its cold and pitiless look before. She looked anxiously down the road, with the horrible shrinking, and dread at the thoughts of being asked out of pity to join in some thanksgiving feast, but there was nobody coming with gifts in hand.

Starting point is 00:07:51 Once she had been full of love for such days, whether at home or abroad, but something chilled her very heart now. Her nearest neighbour had been foremost of those who wished her to go to the Tiled Farm, and he had said more than once that it was the only sensible thing but John Amanda was waiting impatiently to get her tiny file into his own hands

Starting point is 00:08:23 he had advanced some money upon it in her extremity and pretended that there was still a debt after he cleared her wood-lot to pay himself back he would-beck He would plough over the graves in the field corner and fell the great elms and waited now like a spider for his poor prey.

Starting point is 00:08:49 He often reproached her for being too generous to worthless people in the past and coming to be a charge to others now if she could only die in her own house and not suffer the pain of homelessness and. dependence. It was just at sunset, and as she knocked out hopelessly across the grey fields, there was a sudden gleam of light far away on the low hills beyond. The clouds opened in the west and let the sunshine through. One lovely gleam shot swift as an arrow, and brightened a far cold hillside where it fell. And at the same moment, a sudden gleam of hope brightened the winter landscape of her heart. There was Johnny Harris, said Mary and Robb softly.

Starting point is 00:09:59 He's a soldier's son, left an orphan and distressed. Old John Mander scolded, but I couldn't see the poor boy. in want. I kept him that year after he got hurt, spite of what anybody said, and he helped me what little he could. He said I was the only mother he never had. I'm going out west, Mother Rob, says he, I shan't come back till I get rich, as then he'd look at me and laugh, so pleasant and boyish. He wasn't one that liked to write. I don't think he was doing very well

Starting point is 00:10:47 when I heard. There, it was almost four years ago now. I almost thought, if he got sick or anything, I should have a good home for him to come to. There's poor Ezra Blake, the deaf one too. He won't have any place to welcome him. The light faded out of doors, and again Mrs. Rob's troubles stood before her, yet it was not so dark as it had been in her sad heart. She still sat by the window, hoping now, in spite of herself, instead of fearing, and a curious feeling of nearness and expectancy.

Starting point is 00:11:38 made her feel not so much light-hearted as light-headed. I feel just as if something was going to happen, she said. Oh, Johnny Harris, perhaps he's thinking of me, if he's alive. It was dark now, out of doors, and there were tiny clicks against the window. It was beginning to snow, and the great elms creeped in the rising wind overhead. Chapter 3 A dead then of one of the old trees

Starting point is 00:12:23 Had fallen that altar And poor firewood, as it might be It was Mrs. Rob's own And she had burnt it most thankfully There was only a small, armful left But at least She could have their luxury of a fire. She had a feeling that it was her last night at home and with strange recklessness

Starting point is 00:12:52 began to feel the stove as she used to do in better days. It will get me good and warm, she said, still talking to herself as the lonely people do and I'll go to bed early. It's coming on to storm. The snow clicked fast. and faster against the window, and she sat alone, thinking in the dark. There's lots of folks I love, she said once. They'll be sorry, I ain't got nobody to come, and no supper the night of full Thanksgiving. I'm dreadful glad, they don't know, and she drew a little nearer to the fire, and laid her head back, drowned.

Starting point is 00:13:43 in the old rocking chair. It seemed only a moment before. There was a loud knocking, and somebody lifted the latch of the door. The fire shone bright through the front of the stove and made a little light in the room. The Demerianne Robb waked up, frightened and bewildered.

Starting point is 00:14:13 Who's there? she called as she found her crutch and went to the door. She was only conscious of her one great fear. They've come to take me to the poor house, she said, and burst into tears. There was a tall man, not John Amanda, who seemed to fill the narrow doorway. Come let me in, he said gaily. It's a cold night. You didn't expect me, didn't you, Mother Rob?

Starting point is 00:14:48 Dear me, what is it? She faltered, stepping back as he came in and dropping her crutch. Be I dreaming? I was dreaming about. Oh, there, what was I saying? It's not true. No, I've made some kind of mistake. Yes, and this was the man who kept the poor. ball house, and she would go without complaint. They might have given her notice, but she must not

Starting point is 00:15:22 fret. Sit down, sir, she said, turning toward him, with a touching patience. You'll have to give me a little time. If I'd be noticed, I wouldn't have kept you waiting a minute this stormy night. It was not the keeper of the bullhouse. The man by the door took one step forward and put his arm around her and kissed her. What are you talking about? said John Harris. You ain't going to make me feel like a stranger. I've come all the way from Dakota to spend Thanksgiving. There's all sorts of things out there.

Starting point is 00:16:11 in the wagon, and I'm a man to help get him in. Why, don't cry so, Mother Rob. I thought you'd have a great laugh if I come and surprised you. Don't you remember, I always said I should come, it was John Harris indeed. The poor soul could say nothing. She felt now, as if her heart was going to break with joy. He left her in the rocking chair

Starting point is 00:16:44 And came and went in his old boyish way Bringing in the stall of gifts and provisions It was better than any dream He laughed and talked And went out to send away the man To bring a wagon full of wood From John Manders And came in himself

Starting point is 00:17:10 laden with pieces of the nearest fence to keep the fire going in the meantime. They must cook the beef steak for supper right away. They must find the pound of tea among all the other bundles. They must get good fires started in both the cold bedrooms. My mother Rob didn't seem ready for company

Starting point is 00:17:38 from out west. The great, cheerful fellow hurried around the tiny house And the little old woman limped after him For getting everything but hospitality Had not she a house for John to come to We're not her old chairs and tables

Starting point is 00:18:01 In their places still And you remembered everything And kissed her As they stood before the fire as if she were a girl. He had found plenty of hard times, but luck had come at last. He had struck luck,

Starting point is 00:18:22 and this was the end of a great year. Now I couldn't seem to write letters, no use to complain over the worst, and I wanted to tell you the best when I came, and he told it while she cooked the supper, No, I wasn't going to write no foolish letters, John repeated. He was afraid he should cry himself when he found out how bad things had been, and they sat down to supper together, just as they used to do when he was a homeless orphan boy,

Starting point is 00:19:04 whom nobody else wanted in winter weather, while he was crippled and could not work. She could not be kinder now than she was then, but she looked so poor and old. He saw her taste, her cup of tea, and set it down again, with a trembling hand and a look at him. Now I wanted to come myself, he blustered, wiping his eyes and trying to laugh.

Starting point is 00:19:36 And you're going to have everything you need, to make you comfortable long as you live, Mother Rob. She looked at him again and nodded, but she did not even try to speak. There was a good hot supper ready, and a happy guest had come. It was the night before Thanksgiving.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - The Night Before Thanksgiving - A Cozy & Calm Bedtime Story

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