TOMATO SOUP

Put to bed with the sneezes, Baby Mouse escapes to watch her parents' spring planting and then goes on to Farmer Clem's garden--where she has an escapade with George the cat, who carries her into the barn in the packet of seeds where she's hiding. Home again, she gets rid of the bad-smelling medicine the doctor prescribes by pouring it out the window onto George, who then gets a deodorizing tomato-juice bath from Farmer Clem. Tomatoes--being planted; in the pigs' swill (another booby-trap for George); as soup for the not-so-ailing Baby; and as a reiterated note of color in Hurd's gloriously colorful art--tie this episodic effort together, in a casual sort of way, and Baby's lively adventures have appeal. But when all's said and done, they don't have much point.