
Bertrand “Bert” Baxter is a towering former football star who now sells sporting‑goods to coaches and school superintendents with uncanny ease. In the world of lockers and basketballs he moves like a pro, anticipating every need of his male clients. At home, however, his confidence stalls; the same instincts that win contracts leave him baffled by his wife, Rolanda, and their lively brood of four daughters.
The house is a constant chorus of giggles, hair‑curling rituals and midnight feedings, and Bert’s greatest challenge is finding a quiet moment for himself. One sleepless night he pleads silently to his infant daughter, Annie, begging her to “go to sleep, my darling” so he might finally catch a few hours of peace. The gentle humor of his domestic battles offers a warm, relatable portrait of a man trying to bridge the gap between a man’s world and the bustling, ever‑changing rhythm of family life.
Language
en
Duration
~23 minutes (22K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc., 1958.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-11-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1915–1979
A mid-century science fiction writer with a knack for brisk plotting and human-scale ideas, this California-born author also spent years in advertising and public relations. His stories appeared in magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and he later gathered some of his work into collections and novels.
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