I bought three elephants this week.

Really. This little guy on the right was at a local rummage store and my grand-kids have already gotten far more than seven dollars worth of joy out of it. Isn't he adorable?

I imagine some grandpa working in his shop, cutting the pieces, painting the gray ... and then outlining the "saddle" and the cap with those little silver brads. Just too cute not to bring home.

The other two elephants are one-dimensional, embroidered by an unknown hand onto a crazy quilt I won on an online auction. What inspired the maker? Did she love the circus? Had the circus just come through town?

Imagine seeing a live elephant for the first time ... perhaps the only time in a lifetime of days spent on the prairie in the 1800s. The biggest of the two elephants has blue eyes. I love that touch of whimsy ... and even though this quilt is far from "fine" and even though no one else seemed to want it, I'm glad to give it a home. It makes me smile. I think there may be a bit of circus research in my future. I keep remembering sepia-toned photographs I've seen somewhere, of pachyderms making their way down a dusty street in small Nebraska town.