14 NOVEMBER 1891, Page 25

A Canterbury Tale. By M. A. Hoyer. (John Hogg.)—A Canterbury

boy of the name of Augustine stumbles in Kensing- ton, where he happens to be visiting an uncle, on a little girl reading " The Pilgrim's Progress " to her kitten and dolly. As the girl has the equally extraordinary name of Monica, the two strike up an acquaintance. Augustine's friends, who are well-to- -do, help Monica's, who are poor. Fortunately also—for Monica has lost her father—she falls in with an uncle, and as at the end of the story there is a prospect of her faculty of music being adequately cultivated, not to speak of her being married to Augustine, she may be accounted reasonably happy. A Canter- bury Tale is undoubtedly a. slight story, but it is good of its kind. One character in it, an old sailor, is especially well drawn.