JACOB AND THE ROBBERS

Jacob is a moonwalker. By the light of the full moon he can walk on roofs and walls. One nigh the goes up the church steeple, mounts the weathercock, and makes it spin ""until the wind is So Confused it blows up a whirlwind,"" Three fierce robbers seize their chance: ""Now they can go robbing, for the wind is blowing so hard no One will hear them,"" They steal horse, goat, Chickens, cow--until Jacob, seeing them, stops spinning and the wind stops With him. He shouts, the horse neighs, the cow moos. . .and all the people come running. ""Soon the excitement is over. Everyone is asleep again. Only one person is stirring. Jacob is walking down the steeple. He can do this because he is a moonwalker. But now he is going home to sleep, too."" Here is the synthesis of fantasy and melodrama at which the Germans excel, and the woodcut tradition in illustration. Herein the angles and areas are enriched by subtle, coloring and imaginative deployment of color and texture. Occasionally the artist's effects overbalance the event; mostly it is good looking, good listening; all together it is good imagining.