James Herriot is at it again with that easy, ingratiating way of telling a story. Readers of his best-selling "All Creatures Great and Small" are undoubtedly ready to devour its sequel in one gulp. Which may not be the best way to approach this supplementary collection of reminiscences of the Yorkshire country vet before World War II. It deserves more leisurely treatment, a few chapters at a time.

Again Mr. Herriot is evoking those faraway days when even veterinarians made house calls in the middle of the night…. And there is something about a succession of ewes' accouchements, horse castrations and teat stitching that, taken without a break, tends to neutralize narrative suspense.

Such technical items, of course, are not the point of the book. It does not confine itself to a specialist's account of his specialty. This, in today's fashionable cliché, is James Herriot's enthusiastic endorsement of...