Long ago, the Moon held a merry celebration with his stars. They giggled, laughed and sang loudly with delight. People could even hear them from Earth. Things didn't settle down even in the middle of the night. Consequently, all the children were allowed to stay awake and play in the streets and town squares. Of course, they all thought it was heaps of fun! Lucy and Tim even wished that the celebration up in the sky would go on forever.

The next morning, like every morning, they went to kindergarten. They were a bit tired, but so were the other children, and the adults weren't any different either. Therefore, it wasn't so bad that they couldn't pay as much attention as usual.

In the evening, the party continued. A particularly cheeky star twinkled on and off in time with the music. The bright light disturbed Lucy and Tim because now they actually would have liked to get some sleep. But there was nothing else they could do except crawl out of bed and play in their room. It was much too loud and bright to sleep.

The next morning, they were exhausted. Tim even fell asleep while he was having breakfast. He was a hair's breadth away from dropping his head into his jam toast on his plate. Lucy only just managed to catch him by the shoulder in time.

On the way to kindergarten they saw a dog. He was too sleepy to pay any attention to his food and dragged himself across the road with his head hanging low. Luckily, no cars came along.

'Would a tired driver even have noticed him?' Tim asked himself.

No one was happy anymore that the party in the sky was still going on. They didn't play or laugh much. People were just tired and cranky. They got cross with the children easily or even yelled at them. Lucy and Tim thought it was absolutely no fun anymore, so they decided to talk it over with the Moon.

'Listen, Moon and Stars,' called Tim out the window that evening. 'Please be quiet, we would really love to get some sleep.'

It took a while before the Moon heard him over all the noise. Then he saw how exhausted the children were and felt ashamed.

'We didn't even think about how you need to sleep at night,' he apologised. And he promised to end the festivities.

Since that night, everything is quiet up in the sky. The Moon and stars now only whisper to each other.

Although, every now and then, the particularly cheeky star has a good twinkle. If you look very carefully, maybe you'll see it.

_{By Sandra Kaletka from Frankfurt am Main}