A cow in an elevator

I don't know about the rest of you, but I distinctly remember that old high school legend about the senior pranksters who walked a cow up the school stairs and stranded her on the second floor, since cows, as everyone knows, can walk up stairs but not down.  That school must not have had an elevator. 

Our fantastic library has a fantastic summer program every year that brings in events of all kinds to amuse and enrich the kiddos during their summer hiatus from school.  Last year we did everything from enjoy bedtime stories to meet cockroaches (the enormous hissing kind).  This year the library is in a new location with a grand indoor presentation room complete with a stage, and many of the events that took place, regardless of heat or rain, under a tent in their old front yard last summer will now be brought indoors into the relative consistency of air conditioned comfort.  I should not have been surprised, then, to attend today's "Farmyard at the library" activity and find it inside in that grand presentation room.  Besides, that is, the fact that farmyard implies to me an outdoor space complete with grass and mud and any of the various weather elements that see fit to arrive.  This farmyard, however, referred to large (and I do mean large, thankfully) mats covered in hay and a large backdrop painted to look like, well, a farm yard.  While it rained outside we sat comfortably inside and enjoyed, if not the actual sights, the wonderful sounds and smells of a real farm:  The mooing calf, the grunting piglet, the quiet lamb, and the goat that kept trying to eat the large mats.  Farmer John was a really talented presenter and had most of the adults in stitches and most of the kids in awe.  And, since the great indoor presentation room is down a flight of stairs, I just couldn't help thinking of that old high school legend as I watched Farmer John coax his calf into the elevator.  Twice.