Four sentimental tales of love and poverty in a half-timbered thatched-roof cottage, the first three soggy adaptations of familiar nursery motifs, the fourth wallowing in a bathos all its own. Poor Tollush, sweet, blond and aproned, has nothing to wear to her friend's birthday party in the castle, until her widowed mother makes her a beautiful ""rainbow"" outfit from her old patched and outgrown dresses . . . Embarrassed that there is only bread and salt for her sandwich, Tollush pretends at school that she has a heavenly cheese, egg, ham and pickle combination . . . When they have only one short candle left, Tollush and her mother enjoy the dark, rocking their chair up to the stars and back. And though she has no pennies for a gift, Tollush gives her mother (after their bread pudding Christmas supper) an old photo of her dead father, having decorated the frame with autumn leaves, nuts, etc. Maudlin.