The elf, the millipede and the long red cape.

Once upon a time, Etwas the Elf was running through the forests of tall grass, under the canopies of clover and around the stems of tall flowers when she saw a millipede ambling through the weeds.  Etwas ran over and watched the graceful dance of the many coordinated legs.  She stuck her pointy shoe in front of the millipede's 72nd right foot (counting from the front) but the millipede didn't trip.  Instead, it brushed her ankle with the next three steps and tickled the little elf.

Etwas let the millipede walk past and daydreamed.  Finally, the creature went beyond her and the elf played hopscotch in the footprints, jumping and twisting and skipping along to the rear.  As they went, the furrow they were in narrowed and the millipede came to a fence of rose thorns that converged to a point.  Suddenly, Etwas saw a pointy hat just like her own bobbing near the millipede's head and a long cotton cape appeared at the millipede's neck and unrolled along the length of its body.

The little thorn fence narrowed some more until the thorns were replaced with pennies on either side of the millipede, so close that the cape brushed them with a shoooooooosh shoooooosh shooooosh sound.  When Etwas reached the tunnel of pennies she saw that they all gleamed at the height of the millipede's shoulders.

When she reached the other side, Etwas found the cape being rolled up by her cousin, Eamon the Elf.

"Hi there, Eamon!" Etwas yelled with pleasure.  "What are you doing?"

Eamon walked back into the tunnel a ways and inspected the partly polished pennies.

"I'm doing my pawt to keep go'd shiny!" her cousin answered.

"But Eamon," said Etwas, "Pennies are made of copper."

"I know," said Eamon, "I'm pwacticing."

And ever since then, whenever Etwas gets trapped in a tunnel of pennies, she thinks about gold.