THE PLAIN AND FANCY MOTHER GOOSE

In a pleasant and disarming way, the author has let his imagination run beyond the words in eight of the Mother Goose rhymes to create a series of well knit sketches that kept us smiling most of the time and in stitches some of the time too. The chosen verses are ones like Little Boy Blue, Tom, Tom the Piper's Son, Simple Simon, Rub-a-Dub Dub and Hark, Hark, the Dogs do Bark; and all the stories built around them are set in a single town and all contain the same central characters. Simon, Tom, Jack and Jill are chums and in their adventures they contend with Corporal O'Reilly and Sergeant MacGregor, the King's Men, Mrs. McGillicuddie and sundry neighbors. Doings include Little Boy Blue's incarceration in the Tower and trial for falling asleep on the job, a bagpipe contest which Tom's father wins, Simon's attempts to earn enough money to buy his mother a necklace at the fair and a fine joke played on the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. The moments of dry wit in the stories enlarge on the natural humor of the verses and extend the pleasure of them here.