If not the entire world, at least a great portion of it is the setting for this lively tale of adventure narrated from the point of view of a doll. Perhaps the setting that makes the most lasting impression is the Preble farm on the Maine coast, where Hitty comes is created by the old peddler, and to where she returns, perhaps a hundred years later. It is a comforting, ideal place, and Rachel Field presents it with carefully chosen details that make it sound like a place where any child would like to grow up. Hardly less absorbing ,is the depiction of the Diana-Kate, the whaling vessel on which the entire Preble family, including Hitty, takes to the sea, from Boston to the South Pacific. Thereafter, the scenes shift rapidly from the island on which the Prebles are marooned, to Bombay, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and with many...