“She pulled off her covers and stood on her bed so she could look out the window. She saw a moth bumping against the window. Bump and thump. His wings smacked the glass.”
″ ‘There is a tiger in my room,’ said Frances. ‘Did it bite you?’ said Father. ‘No’, said Frances. ‘Dd he scratch you?’ said Mother. ‘No,’ said Frances. ‘Then he is a friendly tiger’, said Father. ‘He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.’ ”
“There were so many giants and tigers and scary and exciting things before, that I am pretty tired now. That is just a moth, and he is only doing his job, the same as the wind. His job is bumping and thumping and my job is to sleep.”
“She jumped out of bed and went to tell Mother and Father. When she got to their door, she thought about it some more and decided not to tell them. She went back to her room.”
“She saw something big and dark. ‘Giants are big and dark’, she thought. ‘Maybe that is a giant. I think it is a giant. I think that giant wants to get me.’ ”
″ ‘S is for sailboat. T is for tiger. U is for underwear, down in the drier…’ Frances stopped because ‘drier’ did not sound like ‘tiger’. She started to think about tigers. She thought about big tigers and little tigers, baby tigers and mother and father tigers, sister tigers and brother tigers, aunt tigers and uncle tigers.”