Summary

The untitled introduction describes how a young girl, Jane, is afraid of very few things in life, despite being surrounded by potentially frightening things in her rural, farm environment. Not only is Jane unafraid of the coyotes or panthers that she can hear deep in the night, but she is also unafraid of "eternal fire or demons and the devil himself" (14). It appears that Jane is only afraid of two things, one of which is horses: "because when they yanked their heads skyward and rolled their eyes she imagined they knew better than her what there was to fear in the air" (15). The other thing that Jane is afraid of is "something she couldn't quite name, a strange presence of danger not quite or not really a part of the world" (13). It is also noted that Jane has found it difficult to...