THE BIG CHEESE

The Misses Tillie and Bee Culpepper buy a big cheese one day, but cheese attracts mice. . . so they buy a cat. . .the cat wants milk. . . so they buy a cow. . . the cow needs grass. . . so they buy a meadow. . . and onward and downward into terminal ennui. Tillie speaks solely in proverbs—"Where there's a will there's a way, and ali's well that ends well"—a comic device carried to a heavy-handed extreme. Bee is the more fevered, but ultimately hollow-sounding enthusiast: "A pig! A pink, shiny pig with curly corkscrew tail, a pig to love!" The illustrations are pleas-ant enough but captioned with more platitudes. Boring.