CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
Born to be a Sailor. By Gordon Stables, M.D. (J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol )—Here Dr. Gordon • Stables gives us a lively story—with, perhaps, too many digressions in the shape of little sermons and large ejaculations—reviving the legend of the wicked uncle. This bad eminence is occupied by Dr. John McArthur, the uncle of Willie McArthur, the hero of the story. Willie's life stands between the doctor and a nice little Highland property and chieftainship,—at least he thinks so, for he is as firm in the belief as is everybody else, that Alister McArthur, his elder brother, and the boy's father, is dead. He has done his beat to bring about such a result, for when Alister, whom he has never forgiven for
having knocked him down when both were boys, goes to sea, John arranges with a confederate to have him marooned. And marooned he is, within easy distance of the South Pole. Willie, however, after a series of adventures in the North of Scotland, in which he, his cousin Mavis, and a famous dog, all figure, reaches Tierra del Fu?go in time to save his father, with the help of an English boy, who has no scruple about killing savages And so the wicked uncle vanishes. The story is one of the best its author has published. It is to be regretted, however, that he apparently cannot learn the art of condensation.
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