Straight to the Mark. By the Rev. T. S. Millington.
(Religious Tract Society.)—This is in the main a story of school life, and a very excellent story, too, so far as this element of it is concerned. Of course, it is idealised—boy life must be idealised, to make endurable reading—but it is not idealised out of all knowledge. Tom Howard is a genuine boy, brave and honest, and not the leas pleasing because he is not above a boy's weaknesses. The tale of his adventures —when he goes down over the face of the cliff to help a schoolfellow, being himself gifted with the kind of head that does not swim at precipices, and used from certain sea experiences to climbing—is admirably told. We have not read a more exciting story for some time ; and it looks like a genuine picture. The contractor and his son, who act as a foil to Tom's honesty, are fairly enough drawn ; but why this worship of wealth, that seems to make it necessary that a lad who is perfectly able to make his way in the world must turn out to be somebody's heir, and, instead of a profitable knocking- about the world, settle down into ease ?
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