John and the Tiny Fairy

Little John said 'ME' to everything. Regardless of whether his mother placed a slice of cake or some pudding on the table, John always said 'ME'. However, when it was time for him to go to bed, he never said 'ME', because of course he didn't want to go to bed. One day, when his mother had put him down to sleep, he climbed out of bed, stood at the window and gazed out.

It was dark, except for the light of the moon. The curtains moved and the leaves rustled in the garden. All of a sudden, the boy noticed a small orb of light glowing down by the grass, and within it, he spotted a tiny little fairy.

'Who are you?' asked John

'I'm ME!' the pixie replied softly. 'And who are you?'

'I'm ME!" said John.

The pixie clapped her hands in delight.

'I'm called ME and you're also called ME. Isn't that funny?!'

John's name wasn't ME, but he didn't put her straight.

'Would you like to play with me, ME?' asked the pixie.

'Yes, ME, I would like that very much,' replied John.

The pixie caught a beam of moonlight in her hands and scattered it across the whole room. It transformed into a host of all sorts of animals: moon cats, moon dogs, moon ponies, even moon dragons that flew about breathing fire. The pixie and John tried to catch the moon animals. While John bounded about he accidentally trod on the fairy's foot. She began to cry and John wanted to make her feel better. Then a voice came in from the garden, 'Pixie child, why are you crying?'

'ME stood on my foot, Mummy,' sobbed the fairy.

'Who stood on your foot?' asked the fairy mother.

'ME, Mummy,' cried the fairy.

'There's no need to cry if you stood on your own foot,' said her mother sternly, then reached her hand into the room and took the fairy away. The moon animals disappeared and John fell asleep.

When his mother asked him the following evening, 'Who's tired and wants to sleep?' the boy immediately cheered, 'ME!' He was excited about seeing the pixie again and remained so every night for the rest of his life.