The next day, Mrs. Sharkle, the PTO head, had to go to Albion, several towns away, to pick up food for her pet elephant. Not that the local pet store didn't have the food. The pet store in Albion, though, was the only one around that had a can opener for sale that was big enough to open the huge cans of elephant food, and her old opener had just worn out.
      As she was walking down the street toward the pet store, Mrs. Sharkle passed a quaint little shop. FLYING COATS, read the sign.
      "Flying coats?" she thought. "That's a strange name for a store." She
looked in the window to see a manikin wearing a black jacket with a fluffy collar—exactly like the one her daughter Jenny had lost the week before.
     "Hmmmm," said Mrs. Sharkle. "Hmmmm."
      Then she noticed, inside the store, a winter hat with a yellow smiley- face on it, exactly like the one their next-door neighbor, Anna—Jenny's best friend—had lost the week before that! "Aha!..." she began.
           And then she spied, on a rack toward the back of the store—her own coat!

      Mrs. Sharkle wasted no time. She grabbed the door handle, pushed the latch with her thumb, and as the little bells above the door tinkled, she stormed into the shop.
      "I demand to know the meaning of this!" she shouted, approaching the old, bearded, almost dwarfish man behind the counter.
      "Meaning?" replied the man in a kind voice, looking up at her with gentle eyes. "Why, this means instruments for your school orchestra— nothing more, nothing less." He smiled benignly.
      "What are you talking about?" asked Mrs. Sharkle crossly.
      "You couldn't come up with a way to buy the instruments, " the old man said. "So I opened this store. Today I reached the goal, that will allow you to have enough instruments for every boy and girl who wants one. Just a moment."

     Right then, several things happened.
     Mrs. Sharkle said, "I'm calling the police!"
      At the exact same time, seemingly from nowhere, a puff of smoke went up behind the counter.
      When the smoke cleared, the old man was nowhere to be seen. But on the counter lay a check made out to the school for—just as the old man had said—enough money to buy all the musical equipment the school needed for the orchestra.      
      Mrs. Sharkle did call the police. They came and retrieved the clothing that remained in the store, and returned it to the boys and girls and parents who had owned it. But no one ever saw the old man again.            

      Today, if you go to Hillcrest School on a rainy day, or during the chilly season, you will find boys and girls wearing coats and sweaters, raincoats and rain hats that never, ever fly off.
       And if you go at the right time of day, in any season, you'll hear the strains of the new school orchestra that everyone is very proud of. You'll also hear lots of stories about the old man who seemed able to train coats to fly, and who turned his mischief into Music!