Three Billy Goats

Bear Island in the Potomac, home of the Billy Goat Trail, apparently has rocks coughed up from when the land was at the bottom of the sea--rocks unlike the impressive but not as ancient collection of boulders that washed down from the mountains and make up the rest of what you see in the river. My daughter is fascinated by every rock, root and shell. My dearest friend, hiking the trail with us, gives her good advice: "If you feel like you're going to fall over, tighten up your tummy and you'll keep your balance." And: "We don't want you to fall and hurt yourself. Not because it's bad to get hurt, because your body will heal up and it'll be OK. But because we won't be able to carry you out of here." And then she picks her up piggyback and runs away down the trail anyway.