THE DOG AND THE BOAT BOY

The locale -- the Kowloon coast near Hong Kong - adds exotic trappings to a creaky conventional story. Chung Yong would keep the homeless dog but Grandmother, opting for a cat to catch mice, bids him give it away -- a hopeless task because the dog each time returns to Chung Yong. The last time a pouch containing ivory figures is attached to his collar; returning them to the gift shop where he found a taker for the dog, Chung Yong is rewarded with one -- a mouse -- which he presents to Grandmother, who decrees that the dog may stay. How did the figures get in the pouch? They were stolen by the man who took the dog, whom the reader will have wrongly assumed to be the owner of the shop. All very distracting -- and so is the inexplicable term ""a small sleeve dog"" (referring to another).