After the death of her dog in a barn fire, Maine farm girl Sarah Bryant has bad dreams that stick ``to her skin like . . . soot.'' Her parents try to comfort her, but when the dreams persist, her father takes her to Grandmother Bryant for a cure. Her grandmother gives Sarah a cloth purse or ``pocket,'' embroidered with the words Fear Not, but as Sarah's grandfather, Shoe Peg, predicts, ``There are no quick cures.'' In time Sarah is helped over her nightmares by a one-eyed cat who comes to sleep on her pillow and, indirectly, by a greedy neighbor who finds Sara's lost pocket and connives to keep it. Martin (Washing the Willow Tree Loon, 1995, etc.) gives the story, which is set in 1787, a distinctive tone in poetic chapters that are seldom more than a page long. Aphorisms and folk wisdom intertwine with the telling; characterizations are revealed in two or three unforgettable lines (``Beck Chadwick would walk uphill to make trouble'' and ``would rather spread bad words that eat apples''). Mathers's cameo-like illustrations harmonize beautifully with the story; its theme resonates. (Fiction. 5-9)
