Where to put cover letter when submitting online?

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but maybe someone can help me. I'm submitting a short story to a magazine that insists it must be accompanied with a cover letter. They mention this at least twice in their guidelines. However, they only accept on-line submissions, and there is a little comment box thingy on the form. Does putting the cover letter here count? I've always done it that way in the past, but does that really count as a cover letter? Otherwise, I would have to put it on the first page of my story, which screws up the page count, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Thanks if you can help,

Lee

Thanks ishtar'sgate, but it's not an email sub.

The magazine has an online form, with boxes for your name, address, etc. It also has a comment box, which is where I sometimes put cover-letter-like comments, but is that a cover letter in the strictest sense? This magazine seems a little strict about their cover letters.

Thank you, Buffysquirrel.