The Three Sillies

Quick Answer

Why This Story Works for Bedtime

It’s funny and gentle, with a clear ‘calm down and solve it’ message. Great for bedtime when kids get stuck in worry-spirals: name the fear, then take one helpful step.

Story Synopsis

A farmer and his wife have a daughter, and a kind gentleman visits often. One evening, the daughter goes down to the cellar to draw beer for supper. While she waits, she looks up—and notices a heavy hammer stuck in a beam above. A thought pops into her mind and grows like a snowball: What if she marries the gentleman? What if they have a child? What if the child comes down here someday? What if the hammer falls and hurts him? She begins to cry. Her mother comes down, hears the worry, and cries too. Then the father. Then the gentleman. Soon, the whole house is weeping over something that hasn’t happened. A practical outsider arrives and can’t believe what he sees. Instead of joining the panic, he offers a simple solution. The ending is both funny and comforting: worries can be loud—but calm action can be louder.

Story Excerpt

Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife, and they had one daughter. A kind gentleman came to see the daughter very often. He would sit in the warm kitchen, and he would stay for supper at the farmhouse. Each evening, when supper was nearly ready, the daughter was sent down into the cellar to draw the beer for the table. The cellar was cool and dim. She carried a little candle and a jug, and she went down the steps carefully. One evening, as she was drawing the beer, she happened to look up. Up in the ceiling beam, she saw a heavy mallet stuck there. She blinked at it. She had never noticed it before. And then she started thinking. She thought, “ Suppose him and me was to be married. And suppose we was to have a little boy. And suppose he grew up big, and came down into the cellar to draw the beer, just like I’m doing now … and suppose that mallet was to fall down on his head — oh, what a dreadful thing it would be! ” The thought made her feel so upset that she set…

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