A Well-Made Bed

A humorous, critical and bold story, appropriate for open-minded parents and children.

Shingalonga is a spoiled princess who doesn’t make her bed in the morning. Every night, she promises her mother, the queen, that she will make it, but she doesn’t keep her promise, and her parents are concerned that all the children in the kingdom will follow her example. The king threatens Shingalonga that she will be sent to a special camp where the bad habits of undisciplined children are corrected. But one of the king’s advisors suggests making a mattress, a sheet, a pillow and a blanket all of gold for the princess. The idea is accepted, and so, when Shingalonga goes to bed, her pillow is cold, her sheet is stiff and her blanket is heavy. In the morning the bed is in fact made, but Shingalonga says that she prefers to be sent to the camp for correcting bad habits than to sleep in a golden bed.

When Shingalonga arrives at the camp in her pink Cadillac, all the children surround her immediately. When they discover that her only bad habit is an unmade bed, they are stunned. They teach her a wealth of bad habits, such as wiping dirty hands on the curtains, sticking gum on the doors, blowing her nose on her sleeves, and target-spitting. When Shingalonga learns all these habits, the children decide that she has completed the camp with honors.

The king and queen hurry to bring the princess back to the palace and hope that from now on she will make her bed every morning. But when night comes, Shingalonga is in no hurry to get into bed. After all, her clean, orderly room is full of possibilities, and all night she musses it with great glee. In the morning, when the king and queen enter the princess’ room, they find the bed perfectly made, but…