11 FEBRUARY 1865, Page 23

Barefooted Birdie. Edited by Charles Felix. (Saunders, Otley, and Co.)

Gertrude Waynflete. By "M. J. H." (Ward and Lock.)—These books have little in common, except that both are " stories for Christmas," and both are of the smallest class of tales which are dignified with separate publication. Of the two we prefer the first, a simple little narrative of an orphan child's poverty and death. In the second the haughty heiress is extravagantly rude, and it is hard to believe in a total conversion of heart worked by a dream in a single night. Neither ought a child's story to turn entirely on marriage. The doc- trine that perfect happiness is secured by marrying a young, rich, handsome, amiable lord or clergyman has no savour of the earthly bliss for which little girls long.