14 DECEMBER 1895, Page 23

Two Little Pilgrims' Progress. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. (Frederick Warne

and Co.)—Robin and Meg are twin children, orphans, who have come into the hands, rather than into the charge, of an aunt who thinks her duty fulfilled if they have

from her food, shelter, and clothing. They are children of great intelligence, whose mental curiosity has been stirred by cultivated parents, and they resent the dull, materialised existence to which they are condemned. The news of the Chicago Exhibition comes to them. This is the City Beautiful of their dreams, and they resolve to make a pilgrimage to it. The quaint, pathetic story of their pre- parations, identical, though often undertaken separately, for they have all the strange sympathy of twins, of their journeying, of their marvel and delight, when the beauty and wonder of the place burst upon them, of the way in which their kindly thoughts go out to a little boy less happily situated than themselves, is told with all Mrs. Burnett's familiar skill. And the happy ending is admirably contrived. Altogether, we have found a most unusual, though it would be wrong to say an unexpected, pleasure in Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's book. Mr. Macbeth's admirable illustrations suit the text very well. Higher praise it would not be easy to give.