As a child, I was afraid of the dark, as so many children are. Not the dark itself, but what I was certain it had: bad spirits, bad people, and anything bad. ___1___ I kept myself inside the light on winter afternoon, thinking of light as magic protection. I went to bed with the hall light on and the door slightly open.

Later on, I borrowed Jill Tomlinson’s book The Owl(猫头鹰) Who Was Afraid of the Dark from the library and fell in love with the baby owl, Plop, who learns through others that dark can be exciting, kind, fun, necessary, beautiful and super. ___2___ In this book, all the animals that are shown on the signs of a village’s stores climb down at midnight. One of the signs is an owl, and this book has a beautiful watercolor owl on the cover.

___3___ I began to see the possibilities of the dark, but I still preferred to meet it with a safety cordon(防护线) of light.

All this changed for me when I moved to the countryside in east London, at 26. There I lived together with real dark for the first time in my life. I learned the wonder of a starry sky. On cool evenings when the stars seemed close enough to touch, I would dress myself in a warm coat and lie in a quiet yard and stretch(伸展) out into the sky, to the calling of owls from the woods. ___4___

A. I tried different ways to keep dark away.

B. But I was sure about the wonderfulness of the dark.

C. However, I spent more time outdoors and more time at night.

D. At the same time, I read and reread Phyllis Arkle’s Magic at Midnight.

E. I have learned, since then, to totally love the dark and everything that lives in it.

F. These stories described night as a magical space where good things could happen.