‘El Duendito Juan’ had good cleaning habits
Una mañana Grampo Caralampio came into el cuarto de dormir where Canutito slept, to call him que viniera a almorzar. El muchacho usually kept it muy limpio pero that morning, when grampo came in to call him for breakfast, he saw que there was garrero strewn about por todo el cuarto. There were zapatos por aquí, camisas por allá and even un par de chortes hanging de la lámpara in the corner. It was unusual for him de tener un cuarto todo desguangüilão like that. It was disgusting!
When Grampo Caralampio saw the little boy en el rincón dropping something else down en el suelo, he cleared su garganta and he asked him: “M’hijo, ¿qué los duendes bailaron aquí anoche?” He looked around todo desgustão shaking his head. “What do you mean by, ‘Did the elves
dance here last night’, grampo?” he asked him.
“Whenever my own grampo used to ask us si ‘los duendes bailaron aquí anoche?’ that was child-talk for ‘you’d better clean up your room, young man’,” grampo said. He used to tell us que los duenditos loved filth de manera que if we didn’t make up our beds en la mañana or if we left los trastes sucios en el sink, los duenditos iban a venir a bailar in our home en la noche. Of course, none of us wanted to see duenditos porque we were afraid de verlos at night so we would clean up nuestros cuartos tan pronto como posible.”
“Do all of los duenditos love filth, grampo?” Canutito asked him, inocentemente.
“Well, let me see, m’hijo,” grampo said, scratching his beard. “You know que Santa Claus tiene un atajo de elves that help him? “Esos son los duenditos buenos. Pero away del Polo Norte; out en el mundo de los hombres, there are some bad elves who like all kinds of cochinadas. Esos son los duenditos que bailan
in filthy rooms en la noche. They are not como los good elves
del North Pole.”
“Do the good elves y los duenditos malos talk to one
another, grampo?” Canutito asked. “They don’t even speak the same language, m’hijo,” said grampo. “Whenever los duenditos del North Pole speak, it is
como una canción pero cuando los elves malos speak, their voices sound como the screeching sound de alguien scratching en un chalkboard. Pero la cosa más curiosa happened una vez,”
he added. “Un Christmas Eve cuando el Santo Clós was out
delivering toys en su chalupa, he made a sudden turn en el aire and his helper elf, el Duendito Juan, was tossed out of the sleigh. He fell en el mundo de los duenditos malos.” “Oh, how awful, grampo!” Canutito exclaimed. “I agree,” said grampo.“Para un duendito bueno to fall entre los duenditos malos would have been una catástrofe pero no para el Duendito Juan. He fell among them pero instead of dancing about en la roña, he would clean up after the others. Soon, los good cleaning habits del Duendito Juan started catching on con los otros duenditos malos. Algunos bad elves are still living en los rincones sucios de las casas pero el Duendito Juan y sus amigos live inside vacuum cleaners. Whenever some people feel que they are overwhelmed con todo el filth en la casa, prenden la aspiradora and they ask al Duendito Juan y a sus jolly helpers to come out of the vacuum y que vengan a ayudarles con el housework.”
Canutito estaba bien contento con la historia that his grampo had told him. Esa noche he prayed que en Duendito Juan would come con todos sus amiguitos to help him clean up the mess que tenía en su cuarto. The next day, todo su cuarto was sparkling clean …