
A vivid, epistolary portrait unfolds as a writer reaches out from a sun‑bleached Florida estate, wrestling with the restless pull between imagination and labor. He describes a house that feels more like a playground than a workplace, where carpenters break into music and the air hums with the chorus of birds, insects, and distant waves. The narrator’s observations of the surrounding wilderness—herons skimming a lake, the delicate imprint of a deer's foot, the glow of evening light on Spanish moss—create a lush backdrop that mirrors his inner turbulence.
Through the gentle humor of characters like the lumber‑laden Mr. Tarrypin and the ever‑present Hildegarde, the story captures the tension of trying to build something lasting amid endless distractions. As the narrator balances his yearning for creative purpose with the pull of the natural world, listeners are invited into a reflective, almost dream‑like first act that celebrates both the stubbornness of work and the enchantment of place.
Language
en
Duration
~13 hours (782K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2020-04-25
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1862–1952
A Kentucky-born actress, novelist, playwright, and suffrage campaigner, she built a remarkable career on both sides of the Atlantic. Her life joined the worlds of theater, fiction, and politics in a way that still feels strikingly modern.
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