Thirteen-year-old Varka, who lost her father, is hired as a servant and a babysitter in a shoemaker's house. All day long, she is forced to fulfill the owners’ orders, and later, she sits all night long by the cradle, trying desperately not to fall asleep. Varka knows that she would be severely beaten for that by her masters….

“Sleepy” is a short story by Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904), translated by Constance Garnett (1861-1946).

The book and the translation have passed into the public domain and are available for free on sites like Project Gutenberg and PublicaDomain. “Sleepy” was first published in Petersburgskaya Gazeta on January 25, 1888, under the pseudonym A. Chekhonte.

"Sleepy" is narrated by Elena Nikitina.

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