TALES OF MY OWN COUNTRY-t
MRS. JACOB'S Tales of My Own Country are quite delightful : they are just what short stories should be—tragic, comic and eerie. She really understands proportion, and each story is just the length that best suits its matter. To the reviewer's mind the entirely funny " July-month " is perhaps the best. The ghost-story "Annie Cargill" runs it close in excellence, and makes the reader shiver with nothing very definite to shiver about—which is the desideratum in a modern ghost story. We are tired of misers ; the curse of economy is patent to all those who must practise it. Nevertheless in " Thieive " we are led to admit once more, against our convictions, that gold is dross, and in forcing the admission from us Mrs. Jacob has performed a tour de force.
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