The farm had many animals from which much entertainment can be gleamed. All animals are much smarter than most people think, and some are smarter than people. All animals are creatures of habit, (including people) and once habits are formed, they are hard to break. Farm animals learn a routine, and, when that routine is broken, they do some very strange things. In short, they try to cope with the situation.

Some examples stick out in my mind. When I was about ten years old, my Father purchased three Jersey heifers, one for each of us boys. Bethel, my youmger brother, seems to understand critters better than most people, so he petted his cow a lot. "Old Sibyl" as she was called, became a pet, or perhaps I should say "pest". She loved people and tried to do what she thought would make us happy. Anytime someone went into the pasture, Sibyl would come over and want to be petted. Of course this led to a lot of tricks being played on her.

Us boys found that if you suddenly push the front knees of a cow forward, she will fall on her nose. Old Sibyl suffered a lot of falls, and began to get smart. All we had to do is touch her on the back and she would go to her knees.

The next step was a really dirty trick. We learned to take a stick and rub manure across a cow's mouth, which would cause them to open their mouth and put out their tongue. Combining the two tricks, Old Sibyl soon learned that "Pray" meant to go to her knees, put her head out straight, stick out her tongue, roll her eyes and bawl.

This trick brought many laughs to many people. I believe we had the only cow that would, with reverence, pray