THE TRICKS OF MASTER DABBLE

Master Dabble is a most appealing trickster. The setting is medieval but the defect he plays upon is one of the eternals -- ignorance compounded by vanity. Claiming to be a master painter, Dabble accepts all sorts of boodle from the courtiers he has been commissioned to paint. He promises to make the bald hirsute, the short tall and the fat slender. On unveiling day, he leads them all before a mirror where they preen themselves until young Andrew, the miserable full time onion peeler and lowest factotum of the castle, breaks the glass. The humor of the three color illustrations is perfectly synchronized with the happy text. The cross sectioned pictures of castle life are full of small details for the alert to discover.