A hiss from the bowels of the earth

October in New Hampshire

I’m not sure how many of you grew up reading Frog and Toad (by the great Arnold Lobel), but of all their edifying adventures, the one that really left an impression upon me as a kid was “Dragons and Giants.” Frog and Toad have been reading some books about characters doing brave and dangerous things, so the two friends decide to get in on the action themselves. They climb a vertigo-inducing mountain, they narrowly avoid being snatched by a cave-dwelling snake, and they dodge the talons of a hawk. With every step of their misguided journey, Frog and Toad convince themselves to keep going by saying “I’m not afraid.” But the hawk proves to be the last straw. The bird of prey sends the amphibian chums sprinting back home, very much afraid.

What I love about this story is how it shows us that courage and fear are not mutually exclusive. The final page finds Frog and Toad huddling in the closet together, rattled from their venture but still feeling brave for having taken it. Hell, I’ve felt this way after several hikes. When I climbed the ladders along the Jordan Cliff Trail at Acadia, I was shaking afterward but in a smug, self-satisfied way. That same year, I experienced the same tornado of feelings when, after some internal convincing, I finally managed to locate one of the creepiest places in the New Hampshire woods—The Devil’s Den.