Rancher Hicks leads a life so uneventful that he takes a trip to town just to see what is happening. Wife Elna stays home. While the rancher is amusing himself with the high life in Sleepy Gulchgetting his whiskers trimmed, having lunch at Millie Mildew's, and watching a turtle cross Main StreetElna is home winning contests, inheriting fortunes, starring in movies, and entertaining the President. Delightfully exaggerated, the happenings are contrasted spread by spread, switching back and forth from town to ranch with the phrase, ``Meanwhile, back at. . . .'' Double-page spreads accentuate the huge sky of the empty ranch, even after Elna's construction projects seem to fill the horizon. Ross places Elna and Rancher Hicks in a parody of an American Gothic pose that is filled with color and barely repressed merriment, wonderfully carrying out the wacky mood of Noble's tall tale. Rancher Hicks wears an expression of hilarious happiness while Elna accepts all that happens with breezy aplomb and regrets missing all the excitement in town. A book sure to create a stampede to the circulation desk. Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy Library, McKinney, Tex. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.