THE GREAT CAT CHASE

In the latest of Mayer's stories without words, a little gift dressed up in high heels, beads and the works sets a little boy dressed as a policeman to chasing her cat, who has escaped from the doll carriage in which she has been wheeling him about. There's a smaller boy who plays pest as the other two dash, splash and tumble about in oversized overcoats, and he ends up in the carriage which the girl pushes to her home, where she fetches a tray of snacks for three and changes to a nurse's costume for treating the battered policeman. For us, the coyness and stereotyped roles of Mayer's tykes just add to the aggravation of their derivative depiction.