“And here is the corn cob I curled them on,” she said, opening her mouth. And sure enough, there was the corn cob!
Now Wonderful-cow-that-never-was got queerer and queerer until the farmer thought her a little too queer. She was very proud of her crumpled horns and tried to hook everyone on them. Once she tore the farmer’s coat trying to hook him. And once she did toss him up. She watched him in the air and all she said was “He’s up now, but he’ll come down some time.” And bang! So he did!
Finally one terrible day, they tied her tight and cut off her horns. She was never the same afterwards. She couldn’t hook any more. “I don’t care about being queer any more,” she said to her mother. And she wasn’t. She stopped standing on her head. She never pulled off another ear. She never broke her tail again and of course she never curled her horns again. Because she hadn’t any! “After all,” she said, “it’s wonderful enough just to be a cow and have four stomachs and chew cud and give milk and have a baby each Spring!” And that’s what she’s doing now!
She’s a wonderful cow,
And anyhow
She does a wonderful thing!
She wallows in mud,
She chews her cud,
And has a baby in Spring!
THINGS THAT LOVED THE LAKE
This story was worked out with a five-year-old boy. It is the result of his own summer experiences on a lake.