you_may_not_fall_down tt "you know what?" thought the elephant, "if i were to put a note on the ground, so i could read it from above, then i would be just fine." he rubbed his front paws together and wrote in huge letters: YOU MAY NOT FALL DOWN then he put the note under the chestnut tree and began to climb. he was halfway up the tree and hidden among the leaves when the cricket walked by. he read the note on the ground. "oh," he thought. "at last!" he had been searching for the word "not" for ages. he had already had "nowhere" and "none" and "never" and "nothing" but he didn't have "not." he rubbed his antennae together, looked around, saw the coast was clear, and tore the word "not" from the elephant's note. there was nothing he wanted more than to hang the word on his front door, in front of his name. "not the cricket," it would say. he would chirp loudly inside the house and look through a crack in the wall at the passers-by. "not the cricket?" they would say. "not the cricket? so who's chirping then?" they would knock on the door and call, "who's chirping?" he wouldn't say anything and wouldn't open the door and only chirp louder. they would be bewildered. bewilderment...the cricket loved that. wrinkled brows, hesitation, and bewilderment. he flew home cheerfully, with the word, "not" under one wing. when the elephant finally reached the top of the chestnut tree, panting after his long climb, he wobbled and almost fell. but then he remembered the note. "oh yes," he thought. "it is a good thing too." he looked down to the ground. "what?"he cried in surprise. he read the words three times. "but i may NOT fall!" he said. he teetered and tottered. "so i may fall," he thought stoically, and with an enormous noise, he tumbled down from the top of the tree. the squirrel found the elephant a little later with the note beside him. he carefully straightened his bruised and battered trunk. the elephant looked up and groaned. "i'll never understand anything ever again, squirrel." "no," said the squirrel and he sat down in the grass beside him. 130216 what's it to you? who go blather from