A child did a drawing. He imagined a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant whole. In his picture, the elephant could not be seen. What was visible was the swollen stomach of the snake.

The child showed his drawing to grown ups.

"Are you afraid to look at this," he would ask.

"Why should anyone be frightened by a hat," the grown ups replied.

In Antoine de Saint-Exupry's The Little Prince, the grown ups always fail. They are not frightened, but that is bec