CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
Girls, New and Old. By Mrs. L. T. Meade. (W. and R. Chambers )—This is an animated and attractive story of life in a girls' school. Interesting circumstances lead up to this life, and interesting consequences come out of it. Altogether the book is a decided success. We may take the liberty of informing Mrs. Meade that she has not got hold of quite the right phrase on page 113. Maurice, the eldest of a group of boys, has succeeded in an undertaking, and is in the highest spirits. " When Maurice gave himself away, as the other boys phrased it, they felt that the cords of discipline were thoroughly relaxed." It should have been "let himself go." To " give oneself away," is to make a damaging admission.—The same subject is pleasantly treated in For the Sake of a Friend, by Margaret Parker (Blackie and Son.)— Susannah Snow, kept at home till she is fifteen, with a very narrow circle of acquaintance, is launched into the small world of a school. Her trials, her sufferings for conscience' sake—she has a quite unyielding sense of duty—and her ultimate victory are described in a simple story, written in a very natural and sensible fashion.
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