The Cow That Barked

Olivia Petunia was a very smart little girl.  I know this because when she was two years old, she knew her own telephone number!  That’s pretty smart.  And, when she was three years old, she knew who was who in the animal world.  By the time she was four years old, she knew every voice that every animal had! She was very, very smart.

Mother and Father were very proud of Olivia Petunia.  They taught her what all of them sounded like by taking her to visit  where most of the animals lived.  Father took her to visit a farm where all the cows, sheep, chickens, pigs and ducks lived.  All of them had a voice.

Mother took her to the zoo where all the tigers and elephants lived.  There were monkeys, giraffes, hippopotamuses and lions.  A lot of other wonderful creatures lived there as well, and people came from all over the place to learn about them.  

Many, many voices were heard at once at the zoo.  It could be a racket sometimes.

Big sister took Olivia Petunia to visit Auntie where a dog and a cat lived.  Those definitely had voices, and the cat and the dog  were the first ones that she learned, when she was even younger!  Amazing!

One day, after coming home from exactly such a visit to Auntie, the family was just sitting down to dinner, when a great boom and crash thundered over the house.  Everybody jumped in alarm.  Nobody had noticed that it had suddenly gotten very dark and windy outside.  A storm suddenly sprang up, as storms sometimes do.

“Oh dear,” said Mother, “I hope the electricity doesn’t go out!”  Father smiled, “It’s a good thing the food is already cooked!  If the lights go out, we can still eat by candlelight!”  

“How romantic!” said Mother.  Father rolled his eyes, Big sister giggled, and Olivia Petunia just ate faster.  She wasn’t afraid of the dark, but she would rather be able to see her food.

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