The Story of Dick. By Major Gambier Parry. (Macmillan and
Co.)—This is a pretty character-study of boy-nature, illus- trated throughout with descriptions, worked, it is clear, with a very full and loving knowledge, of rural life. " Dick " is the son of a soldier, whom his father, having to leave England with his regiment, sends to an uncle's farm. Here he finds a cousin, of about the same age, whom a foolish mother, Mrs. Yelf, has brought up to be a complete " milk-sop." Dick undertakes his reformation—both lads, it must be understood, are about nine— and works it out by a course of drill and other not dis- similar means. Naturally, this brings him into collision with his aunt, a jealous woman, who has also, now and then, good reasons for resenting Dick's ways of going on. Meanwhile,
the good farmer, an excellently drawn character, plays the part of a " benevolent neutral," while personages of some importance in the little drama are introduced in 'Siphorus (short for One- siphorus), the shepherd, and Keziah the maid-servant, the latter being, it strikes us, just a little caricatured. The catastrophe, as it may be called, of the story, is a powerful scene, which few readers will get through quite unmoved. Dick, however, is spared the fate which overtakes the well-known hero of "Misunderstood," a character of whom he sometimes reminds us.
Previous page
