AND THEN THE MOUSE. . .

Hall's three little mouse tales derive from the folk-tale tradition. For those who can use more such fabrications, they're as clever and well-told, but less pointed, than many minor examples of the real thing. In the first, a scheming mouse enlists other animals' aid to trick a man into switching careers from trapper to farmer to miller to baker--all so the mouse can have some fresh bread. In the second story, a young mouse and would-be witch learns cooking from a real human witch. She balks at paying the price of witchhood (""Just cut off your tail and toss it in the pot""), but does become a fine cook. The last story, more on the anecdote level, has an old woodcutter gambling away all his earnings and the mouse who shares his shack secretly saving coins for a new house. Gammell's drawings are scratched out in diagonal lines, which is no great trick--but he often catches his mice, rabbit, and other characters at amusing moments.