When Charlotte was a baby in the arms

of her mother, she enjoyed a lot of

special care and attention… until the

moment her lovely, sweet little brother

was born.

She was already very naughty, but

when she saw that all the attention was

now for the newborn baby, her

character and behaviour began to get

worse.

She would sing all day long, very loudly,

waking up and annoying all the neighbours.

And no other little girl wanted to play with her

anymore, because she would always snatch

the nicest dolls for herself.

“These dolls are mine, and these too, mine all

mine! You can play with the ragdolls!”

As well as making up rules, she would tell

horrible stories about the end of the

world. If she was taken to play at a

friend’s house, she would soon be sent

back home, and her mother would hear

complaints about her naughty child.

“Madam, I return to you your

terrible daughter. My little girl

is scared; she keeps saying

that the world will end soon

and that Charlotte told her she

must give her all of her toys…

She does not play nicely! Your

daughter is terrible!

However, her grandparents, Manuel and Rosa,

with whom she now lived and who loved her,

celebrated her naughty and cheerful personality.

Every day they would place her on a wooden

board, and would ask her to jump and sing

“playing on the board”. It was a song that her

grandparents had made up to see their darling

jump and play.

Although she would laugh and jump, the little girl felt

sad because no one wanted to play with her

anymore. So, as she had nothing else to do,

Charlotte invented a daily challenge. Each day she

would collect sugar and breadcrumbs to sprinkle

around the house, for those friends who never

abandoned her; some lovely, black ants. Now they

could just collect the food and keep moving in their

line, without having to do any more work.

One day she decided to follow her ants; so

she opened the kitchen door and went

down the stairs to the stables, being

careful not to be seen by her grandpa.

She kept following the ants, singing quietly,

until they came to a huge, old wooden door in

a cane wall. The ants had already gone inside,

and one of them looked at her nervously,

indicating her to come through quickly.