Keeping Your Weights

The route Phoebe and I take from the car to her classroom involves walking along a sidewalk at the top of a small but steep hill. One day, since she likes to walk on the very edge of the sidewalk, she nearly fell down the hill into the rocky drainage ditch below.

"Oh," she said, relieved, "I kept my weights."

"Kept your weights?" I asked.

"Yes. Like Harold."

I realized that she was talking about the moment in Harold and the Purple Crayon when Harold is falling but "kept his wits and his purple crayon," allowing him to get himself out of trouble once again.