THE ADVENTURES OF TOMMY

A very rich man with his nose in the air (""pride goeth before a Steps over the edge of a cliff into the sea whereupon he is rescued by a boy named Tommy Bates (""this Was not his real name""); to reward Tommy (who ""had been told never to take money from strangers""), the rich man buys him the most extraordinary pet he can find--an elephant--whom Tommy names Augustus after the Roman emperor. ""And all that Tommy"" and Augustus did ""will perhaps be written some day in another book."" We don't know if the other book was ever written, but this one was a long-time favorite with English children; it's not hard to see why--the little sketches and insouciant text have a certain charm--but in the enormous range of current offerings it's a very incidental item.