A DOG'S LIFE: Stories of Champions, Hunters, and Faithful Friends

Ten assorted stories in which dogs figure--most of them written in simpler times for adults and representative, in a loose way, of Saturday Evening Post fiction. In two--James Street's well-known ""Weep No More, My Lady"" and Roderick Lull's ""Choice of the Litter""--a poor boy selflessly gives up a valuable, beloved hunting dog (to, in effect, fulfill the dog's higher destiny) which is a little too much of a too-good thing. Not that harmony reigns: the Street is followed, incompatibly, by a long, coy Bemelmans' anecdote about hiding a poodle aboard an ocean liner. And here, as in some of the others, a young child is viewed from an indulgent adult perspective. One of the latter, Corey Ford's story of an unwelcome war dog (""Home Is the Hero""), is also, however, an old-fashioned heart-breaker--which is to say that the collection has few unqualified successes and no consistency. The one unputdownable item is Walter Edmonds' sad, tense, provocative tale of a boy persuaded to let his bulldog answer a boastful challenge, ""The Honor of the County."" Otherwise, a standard mix of sentiment and courage.