Great - Uncle Hoot - Toot. By Mrs. Molesworth. (S.P.C.K.)—The only unfortunate thing about
Mrs. Molesworth's new story is its title, which, curiously enough, on account of its very accuracy, suggests a fairy-tale with an owl for hero or good genius. The great-uncle who figures in this story is nicknamed " Hoot-Toot," because of his habit of using this expostulatory yet good-natured exclama- tion. He uses it, and the policy for the guidance of life which it expresses, for the moral improvement of his great-nephew Geoff, who gives a good deal of trouble to his mother by that kind of selfishness, not uncommon among boys, which, as a rule, takes the form of useless complaining of one's environment. Geoff, who is, indeed, an admirable sketch, comes, in fleeing, as he thinks, from the ill-treatment of his relatives, to ascertain what genuine hard work means. All the same, however, he is in the clutches of the tyrant whom he so imperfectly understands. Geoff's anxious and loving mother, and his two sisters, are important additions to Mrs. Molesworth's portrait-gallery. Nor has she ever taught a sounder lesson in an indirect fashion than she h,as in Great-Uncle Hoot-Toot.
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