SAINT PATRICK AND THE PEDDLER

Reshaping a tale found in both Jacobs's More English Fairy Tales and Sawyer's The Way of the Storyteller (as she explains in an excellent note), Hodges creates a briefer, more accessible tale retaining enough of Sawyer's Irish lilt for a pleasing flavor. A generous peddler has given away so much that he's destitute. Going to bed hungry—in his cabin near Ballymena, where Saint Patrick once lived—he dreams that the saint sends him to Dublin, where ``you will hear what you were meant to hear.'' After the saint's third dream-visitation, the peddler complies and meets a Dubliner who scoffs at his own three dreams- -about a treasure back in Ballymena, where the peddler duly finds it. In Sawyer's tale, he builds a chapel for weary travelers; here, the still-generous peddler's wealth allows him to have a beautiful wife and children, but the updated conclusion doesn't really change the story's essential tenor. Johnson renders an idyllic countryside in the spirit of Constable, but the romantic landscapes don't overwhelm the story (as Thomas Locker's tend to do); rather, they make a dramatic setting for the lively, effectively characterized figures. An auspicious blend of appealing story and engaging visual interpretation. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-10)