CURRENT LITERATURE.
Summer Stories for Boys and Girls. By Mrs. Ifolesworth. (Mac- millan and Co.)-.--No one will complain—boys and girls least of all— if Mrs. Molesworth chooses to give us one of her delightful volumes at a time when no one is looking for it. There is no particular reason why these should be called summer stories, except, perhaps, as re- gards the strange narrative entitled, "Not Exactly a Ghost Story." Something of the strangeness comes from its having happened in broad, midsummer daylight ; and it is at such a time, perhaps, that it shotild be told. In the "creepy," winter twilight, such a tale, if not exactly a ghost story, might not be salted, except to the very bravest sort of "boys and girls." We presume that the tale itae]f is true, as far as such things over are true; and, indeed, there is such evidence for them as the sceptics cannot easily account for. Perhaps the best thing in the book is "The Toymakers of Bergstein," a touching pic- ture of the poverty which is often bidden under the picturesque exterior of the German manufacturing villages. Another story, which will keenly interest young readers, is "Left Behind." A certain Master Tom, a self.conticlent young gentleman of ten, or there- abouts, is allowed, by way of a great privilege, to walk about, while waiting for the train, on the platform of a railway-station. He con- trives to lose himself and to be left behind, and goes in consequence
adventures, which end, however, happily for through some harrowing him, and happily for the people who befriend him in his need. "The Swallows" is a very agreeable tale, somewhat after the manner of Hans Christian Andersen, and the "Goose-girl," a fairy-tale of the old-fashioned sort, and quite worthy of taking a good place in that most admirable literature.
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