Shreds and Patches. By E. N. Leigh Fry. (Walter Smith
and Innes.)—This volume contains eight "passages," written, the author tells us, for a manuscript magazine. They have been joined together by a little thread of story, and are, in fact, a chronicle of the doings of two children, Alec and Katty Molyneux, and their uncle Jack, an officer of Hussars. The most stirring incident in the history is the fight at an electioneering meeting, Miss Fry describing the conflict with an almost Homeric vigour. If artistic effect had been considered, the story of Billy the street- boy and his devotion, should have come in later. As it is, the reader feels things to be somewhat flat after the lad disappears from the tale. This chapter, "For the Queen," is so good that what follows suffers by comparison ; but the title of the book warns us not to expect a regularly constructed plot. The children are admirably drawn, as good as any that we have seen in fiction for a long time. Altogether, Shreds and Patches is a good bit of work. But why is Jack spoken of as wearing uniform at home, and that not on an extraordinary occasion, but in common life ?
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