THE SHEEP OF THE LAL BAGH

Ramesh, the sheep of the Lal Bagh, is an exotic cousin of all the old horses displaced by tractors; long the delight of the hard-working people who spend Sundays and holidays in the big park in the little Indian city, he feels superfluous when a lawn mower arrives and so leaves to lose himself in a flock of sheep. On the next holiday, the people miss Ramesh--they cannot pat a machine, or rub its head, or climb on its back--so they stop coming to the park. In dismay, the mayor appoints a committee to find Ramesh, but it's a little boy who succeeds; he recognizes him because Ramesh is eating the grass in circles as he always did on solemn holidays. Granted that it's a silly sort of story, there's enormous vivacity in the Indian-inspired illustrations and neither pictures nor text take themselves seriously. You might want it just to find Ramesh neatly nibbling ""THE END"".