wood-cow story

On the road I take on Saturday mornings, there is a farm, that has a hilly green field with dwarfish trees, that slopes down into woods that stretch back and down the road. Often there are cows milling about in the field. Today, as I was driving past, I looked into the woods, still full of dull red and orange tones from the winter, but the green is starting to come. The trees grow close together and the ground is rocky and hilly; there are brooks and streams winding past. I looked into the woods and then could not believe my eyes. A whole troupe of cows was standing there in the middle of the woods, among the fallen leaves and tall trees and little leafy plants growing by a stream --- like some newly-discovered wild forest cattle. They stood all grouped together like they were trying to figure out how they had ended up in the woods and were plotting about what direction to run off to next.

When I came back on the same road two hours later, the cows were standing in the field like normal, completely calm and cool. I wondered if the owners of the farm had noticed the cows were missing and gone into the woods to retrieve them --- or if the cows returned of their own will, never to tell anyone about their woodland rendezvous.