One night, while everyone was sleeping, a group of five elves got together. They weren’t ordinary goblins, but the kind of little ones who are always causing mischief. That night, they were especially bored, so they decided to have a contest. Whoever came up with the biggest mischief would win.
The first goblin, Mosswick the Green, called a few dogs under the window of a sleeping house and got them all barking. A light came on in the window, An old lady leaned out, and scolded the dogs.
“Go to sleep, you silly dogs. It’s nighttime,” and she closed the window.
The little goblin Mosswick repeated it several times. The old lady opened the window every time and threw something for the dogs to eat. With their mouths full, maybe they wouldn’t bark, she thought. After a while, the fridge was empty. The stuffed dogs fell asleep, and the old lady could finally go to bed too. Tomorrow she’d have to head into town for groceries, because there was nothing left to eat at home. She threw it all to the dogs.
The elves burst out laughing. Then it was the second elf’s turn.
“Look, guys,” said Pebbles Pancrete, the gray elf, and he ran over to the main road, where he dug a few holes with his magic spade.
Every car that drove by bounced as its wheel dropped into a hole. The drivers got angry and tried to steer around the holes. But Pebbles made so many holes that when a car dodged one, it fell into another.
The little elves couldn’t stop giggling. Then it was the third elf’s turn.
Flicker Shade, the black elf, buzzed around the wires for a while. Suddenly, all the lights blinked several times. For a moment, they went out and then came back on again.
“Good night, folks,” called out Flicker the elf, and turned off all the electric lights. People who weren’t asleep yet—maybe still watching TV or reading—looked around to see what was going on. People who worked at night couldn’t see so they couldn’t do their jobs. The doctor at the nearby hospital was just about to give someone an injection, but instead he stuck it into a pillow.
“Good morning, everyone,” called out Flicker, the little elf, through tears of laughter, and lit up again.
The lights were shining again, the TVs turned on again, the doctor grabbed a new shot for the patient, and this time he got it right. Everyone went back to what they were doing.
The elves were rolling on the ground with laughter. Then it was the fourth elf’s turn. They called him Weston Whistleblue. Like a blue shadow, he drifted down through chimneys and blew so hard that it made a roaring sound in people’s homes. And that’s how Weston would wake people up and stir up a noisy draft.
The little elves laughed.
“Now it’s your turn,” they called to the last elf, who was new among them. “What’s your name? You’re pretty small.” Can you even pull off any real mischief?”
“I’m Snoozle Silver. And I can wake up the whole town with just one mighty…fart. I mean, craft. Of my magic wand”
The elves laughed at his slip of the tongue. That made Snoozle angry, and he started casting spells. Maybe he was nervous. Maybe he muddled up the magic. But instead of a giant cannon that shoots the loudest fireworks, the elf managed to conjure up only a little lamp. The kind people put on their tables so they can see to write or read.
The elves giggled so hard, they nearly split their little mouths from laughing. But Snoozle just waved it off.
“Settle down, my dears,” he said. “This little lamp can definitely do something. And something rather naughty.”
“Yeah, like shine?” asked Pebbles Pancrete, leaning on his magic spade so he wouldn’t topple over laughing.
“Look, guys,” Snoozle insisted, jumping over to the window of the nearest house with the lamp, and shining it on a sleeping man.
All at once, instead of a shadow on the wall, a movie started playing, just like on TV. And in this movie, the sleeping man was the star! And he was being chased by a giant rubber teddy bear.
“What’s that?” the little elves wondered. “That little lamp of yours shows us what people dream at night. That’s amazing!”
The sprites were absolutely over the moon about it. Snoozle was pretty surprised too. But is revealing people’s dreams really such a naughty thing to do? Well, you might be surprised but that night the elves laughed harder than ever, in all their years of mischief.
They watched a movie of lady dreaming about how she parked her car and couldn’t find it. But soon it began to get boring, because she just kept walking around the parking lot and couldn’t find her car anywhere. An old lady dreamed about biting into a cake, but right then, all her teeth fell out. An old man dreamed that his dog ate yeast, puffed up, and floated away like a balloon.
The kids had funny dreams, too. Johnny dreamed that his grandma was frying pancakes—not on the stove, but on a trash can! And Annie dreamed that her dad turned into a singing fairy.
The little elves laughed so much that their mouths and bellies hurt for two whole days. Peeking into people’s dreams turned out to be quite the cheeky trick. After all, dreams were people’s secret, and they watched them as if they were movies in a theater. So Snoozle the elf was crowned the winner of the mischief contest.
And what about you, kids? Have you ever had a super funny dream that would definitely make the elves giggle?