PROUDFOOT'S WAY

With a map, it might be less complicated. . . Left behind in New Hampshire with finicky housekeeper Mrs. Morse while her widower dad, a doctor, takes over a large practice in Greenfield, Mass., nine-year-old Phoebe is slightly reconciled by the return of cat Proudfoot, then alienated by Mrs. Morse's out-and-out meanness--and some suspicion of what she's up to with her three ""witchy"" friends. Assuming that Proudfoot will guide her back to Greenfield, she runs away, spends the night in the local Haunted House, accepts a lift here and there, dodges pursuers (purportedly, she's been kidnapped), trails a cat she takes for the vanished Proudfoot, and finally makes it to the arms of her worried dad. Admonitions over, Phoebe is vindicated by the ouster of Mrs. Morse--not a witch, says her Dad, but ""deceitful""--though, having lost her prized locket, she hasn't gone unpunished. Lots of fuss over every little detail (including the remedy for shameful fruit-juice stains) and icky from first page to last.