My opinion, if you want to know it, is this: all little children, boys and girls, with blond, brown or black hair; with brown, blue or gray eyes; snub-nosed and straight-nosed, from the toddler, middle or older group - everyone, absolutely everyone should go to bed in the evening at eight o'clock.
This is my opinion!
And I, children, walked many roads, saw a lot and heard a lot. And if you don’t trust me, then all you have to do is talk to my shoemaker. He will tell you that during my travels I managed to tear ninety-nine pairs of gaiters, sixty-six pairs of shoes and thirty-three pairs of sandals. It’s good that I don’t wear boots or galoshes, otherwise I wouldn’t have enough money for them.
During my travels, I passed through a country that, like you, has a name. It's called Africa. It is very far from us to Africa, as far as from Africa to us. But since this story happened exactly there, I won’t look at the fact that Africa is so far away and tell you it.
There lived a family of crocodiles in Africa: Father Crocodile, Mother Crocodile, and Son Crocodile.
Father Crocodile often said: “My opinion is that all little crocodiles, girls and boys, green, brown or smoky; with snouts pointed, straight or blunt; with tails small, medium or large - all, well, absolutely all, should go to bed at eight o’clock sharp in the evening.”
But Crocodile Son did not pay attention to what Crocodile Dad was saying. The crocodile son did as he pleased and went to bed not at eight o’clock, but at nine and even after nine. Think, children, after nine! Has this been heard of? The next day, early in the morning, Mother Crocodile had to pull his tail to get him up.
One day Crocodile Dad asked his son:
- When will you finally listen and go to bed at eight o’clock?
Little Crocodile replied:
- Then, when you buy me a watch. Otherwise, I don’t know when it’s eight o’clock, so I go to bed late.
The Crocodile and the Crocodile consulted, borrowed money from a friend of the Crocodile and bought a watch for their son. In our country, such watches are called hand watches, but since crocodiles do not have hands, they are called tail watches. However, looking at his watch, the Crocodile said:
- Too small, I can’t see when the hands show eight o’clock.
Again the Crocodile and the Crocodile consulted, again borrowed money and bought a larger watch. We call such a clock an alarm clock. But among crocodiles, who can wake up without an alarm clock, they are called “Time to go to bed.”
But the Crocodile didn’t like this watch either.
“They are small too,” he said. And again the Crocodile and the Crocodile consulted,
They borrowed money again, went to the Crocodile watchmaker and said:
— Show us the biggest clock, with the biggest pendulum.
They bought a clock with such a long pendulum that it could be seen from Buzau itself. And Buzau is a city that was very, very far from the house of the Crocodile son.
Oh, if you only knew, children, with what great difficulty the Crocodile and the Crocodile brought this watch home!
The little crocodile saw the new watch and was just about to say that it was also not big enough.
“And these...” he began. But since it was exactly eight, the minute hand of the large clock grabbed the Crocodile-son by the ends of his trousers and threw him straight onto the bed. Just then the clock struck eight o'clock.
At the first blow, the Crocodile asked himself: "What is this? Who threw me?"
At the second blow, he explained to himself: “Ah... This is a clock.”
At the third blow he said: “I’ll show them!”
On the fourth: “What if they leave me again?”
At the fifth: “I don’t need to get involved with them.”
At the sixth: “What if I go to bed now?”
At the seventh: “I’d better go to bed.”
And at the eighth blow, the Crocodile went to bed, fell asleep and did not wake up until the morning.
Of course, this story could not have happened here, since there are no crocodiles in our country.
And yet, my opinion and the opinion of Crocodile Dad are the same.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru