Humphrey and Cheryl loved to collect different kinds of mud. They kept them in jars in their basement. One evening, when they were both reading "The Mud Collector's Journal", they came across a story about a mythical "deadly cow mud". There was no real explanation about how it got that name, but it apparently required a mystical approach to reach it: The concept was simple really – traverse three mountain ranges, tip-toe in circles for 15 minutes chanting "deadly cow mud", close your eyes and think about The Cow Who Jumped Over the Moon, and it should appear before you when you open your eyes.
Humphrey and Cheryl became very excited upon reading this. They decided to go off in search of the mythical deadly cow mud the following summer. Cheryl would later write in her own article in "the Mud Collector's Journal":
Fortunately, we lived near where three mountain ranges met, so it was fairly easy to get that part over with, only taking a few weeks. It was when we began tiptoeing in circles and chanting, that things got interesting. Before the 15 minutes were up, we realized that our chanting had changed into mooing, without our noticing it. It was actually quite beautiful. We instinctively mooed in harmony.
We opened our eyes, and realized that we had transformed into cows, and a short distance away, there were other cows, giving us adoring looks. We longed to get closer. But between us and them was a stream. We started to cross it, and a look of alarm came over the cows, and It's here where we encountered the deadly cow mud – so sticky we couldn't move. It seemed perfectly suited to entrap cow hooves. We now knew how the mud had gotten its name. There was no way we'd get out of the mud, at least while we had hooves.
The cows rushed to the bank of the stream, but stopped before reaching the mud, looking at us mournfully. I looked over at Humphrey, who was staring at the mud closely. Then to my alarm, he lowered his mouth to it and licked it. To my amazement, he started turning back into a human. "It's not really mud, but fudge! Try it!" he exclaimed. I lowered my cow head and took a sniff. It certainly did smell like fudge, so I took a bite. It was actually quite tasty. I then felt my body turning back into its former human form. I was able to step out of the "mud" quite easily.
The cows were astonished at our transformation. One of them leaned over the mud and took a bite. Instead of turning into a human, a pair of wings grew from its back. With delight, it took off into the air and began flying around happily. The other cows rushed to the stream, and soon they too were all flying around. It was a joy to behold. The first cow flew over the stream to Humphrey and me, with and gave a moo that we knew was a moo of gratitude.
We stayed with the flying cows for the rest of the summer, and then prepared to leave, as we hadn't packed any autumn or winter clothes. The flying cows were sad to see us leave. We hope to return next summer.
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Tales of Tiptoe and More - Volume III
हास्य-विनोदThe third volume of an on going series of episodes, often involving Nancy and Sluggo's tiptoe experiences.
