A long, long time ago, thousands of children in the world didn't know how to tell whether they were treating others well or badly. They could hit their brothers and sisters, thinking they were doing good. They could be filled with regret at having helped their mother or having tidied their bedroom. The whole day through, the fairies had to explain to the kids whether they had been good or bad. It was a tremendously boring and tiring job.

One of the fairies was called Sparkles, and she was great fun. She thought it would be better to teach the children a few things, and so she invented a talking pillow for her favourite girl, Alicia.

When Alicia went to bed, the pillow would ask her:

-"Tell me, my girl, what did you do today?"

Whenever Alicia told her that she had done bad things, the pillow would make annoying noises through the night, and contort itself into all kinds of uncomfortable lumps and bumps. Of course, Alicia could hardly get any sleep.
But when Alicia talked of good things she had done, the pillow would purr like a pussycat, would wish Alicia a good night, and would play sweet soft music the whole night through. Before long, the girl had learnt how to behave so that her pillow would play lovely music every night.

Sparkles the fairy then decided to use the pillow on another little girl who was giving her a lot of trouble. At first, Alicia was afraid that she might forget how to be good, but she remembered the words she had heard every night, and she would say to herself:

-"Let's see then, Alicia. What did you do today?"

Alicia was pleased to find that she herself now knew whether she had behaved well or not. And when she had been good, she slept wonderfully. Just like when the talking pillow had been there, she found it hard to sleep whenever she had done something bad. And she could only feel peace if she promised to make right, the next day, whatever harm she had done.