THE HAUNTED HOUND

A really catching story of a boy and a dog, this abandons a sturdier action routine for some sentimental values which are valid. Jonathan, thirteen, lonesome and left to himself after the death of his mother, excluded by his father lost in the memories of his wife, wants only to return to the farm where they had lived- but which is too strong a reminder of his wife for his father to face. Going back to the deserted farm on his own, Jonathan takes up with Mr. Worth, the man next door, and Judy, his niece, fights off his feeling for Pot Likker, a bound ""with no instincts"" who only responds to Jonathan. But when Pot Likker- who had gone wild- comes back to Jonathan to be his dog, Jonathan decides to stay on at the farm alone, enters him in a foxhunting race where Pot Likker proves his blueblooded superiority, and at the close- after Pot Likker dies- his father is persuaded to return to the way of life and the farm the boy needs. There's a very sure appeal here- and a handling which is sensitive to the subject.