TALES.—Namesakes. By Mary E. Mullah. (Hatcharde.)—We had read some way
through this little book, not before we saw its merits, but before we recognised in the author the writer of that very charming story, "The Lion Battalion." It is sufficient to say that Namesakes is worthy of her. Jerry, the little hero, is a darling boy, and Jill an equally darling little girl. There is a sandy cat, sole sur- viver of many toys, who plays an important part in the story, and a "delightfully sticky white.sugar pig," who also appears and disappears, and there are some grownups, who are as interesting as it is in their nature to be. Altogether this very unpretending little volume is worth more than many more pretentious! rivals.—Johnnis Feature (Nelson and Sons) tells the story of a bold young lad who, having written a story (at the age of nine), goes up from Brighton to London to find a publisher, and falls in with a most philanthropic old gentle- man who rescues him and his companion from a disagreeable dilemma Johnnie is a line young fellow, but it in pessimi exemp/i to represent him as committing, at so early an age, the mature enormity of writing a book.—Wishes on Wings. By F. D. S. Ames. (Barns and Oates.)—Millicent Grainger is a spoilt child who is brought to a better frame of mind by a very curious dream, a dream which resembles what the Eastern King saw when, at the dervish's bidding, be plunged his head into a basin of water. We with that spoilt young people could be cured so readily. The second tale is a pathetic story of the devotion of a young priest to ddy and affection. —A Far-Away Cousin, By Katharine D. Corniah. (Griffith, Ferrari, and Co.)—A wholesome, readable dory, the most remarkable thing in it being that the hero does not make his appearance till the tale is about half.told. He does not interest us particularly ; but the children are well described.—Two and Two, or French and English. By Mrs Seymour. (Griffith, Ferran, and Co.)—Here the scene is laid in a home where them are two families, two of the children being altogether English, two French on the mother's side. This state of things results in some amusing situations,—amusing, that is, to read about. Finally, they mend their quarrelsome tendencies and their other bad habits by a system of self-imposed fines.—Both Sides. By Jessie W. Smith. (Nisbet and Co.) —An excellent little tale of the patient effort by which a good woman domesticates a homeless, friendless girl in whom the desire for change was a strong hereditary instinct. She has almost failed, when another impulse of charity helps her through. She takes charge of an orphamchild, and the child is an attraction from which the girl cannot break away.—From the same author and publishers we also get Stephen Gilmore's Dream. Here the purpose is to illustrate the most diffietilt of all the Christian duties,—forgive- fleas. Stephen Gilmore has been deeply wronged, and it is not till he sees ins dream what it would be not to be forgiven, that he also learns how to forgive.—Her Only Son. By the Author of "Jessica's First Prayer." (Houlaton and Sons.)—Another story, this, of unwearied patience and love winning at last their reward. Joanna Fleming leaves her dear country home to join her son in London, and finds him a drunkard. The tale of her efforts and their result is told with true pathos, and without exaggeration.—If any one wants an exciting change from these didactic stories, let him turn to The Pursued. By W. J. Gordon. (Warne and Co.)—It is a story of Indian life in the Far West, and is full of strange adventures, of legend, and mystery, with some
powerful description of the wonders of nature.—Ebb and Flow, by R. Andr6 (Warne and Co.), is a tale of English domestic life on the one Bide, and of adventure in South American plains on the other. The author has contrived to weave them together into an ingenious
plot, and to make out of them a readable story, told with plenty of humour.—A. Pair of Clogs, and other Stories. By Amy Walton. (Blaokie and Son.)—Miss Walton does not provide her stories with endings. Perhaps she is right. In real life, we seldom get the com- plete and satisfactory windings.up of affairs which the writers of fiction commonly give us. "Pair of Clogs" (for this, it must be under- stood, is a little girl's name) has some curious adventures, which are quite worth reading, but we do not know what is going to happen to her. Similarly in "After All!" the haughty and selfish godmother does not repent when her godchild chooses poverty at home rather than plenty in a loveless house. Will she do no in another volume ? —Very Short Stories in Very Short Words, by the Hon. Emmeline Placket (Wells Gardner and Co.), does what it olaime to do, and will be found, we doubt not, useful and entertaining.—In the Land of Nod. By Ada C. Marzetti. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)—This is a tale of the "Alice in Wonderland" kind, and a fairly good specimen. Little Myra falls asleep over Butter's spelling-book, encounters in her dreams a " Spelling Bee," and learns to spell. Such a vision would be very useful.
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