1 APRIL 1916, Page 19

Stories and Poems by Bret Marie. (Oxford University Press. la.

(h. net.)—This handy edition gives us over five hundred pages of the best- known short stories and a hundred pages of verse. There are also seventy-five pages of introduction by Mr. W. Macdonald, who is eulogistio and sympathetic except in so far as he is heavy, which Bret Harte never was. The selection is careful, as we can see from the introduction, though no doubt every admirer will miss something that he would have included. We rejoice in the excuse to quote from The Reveille :— " Hark ! I hear the tramp of thousands, And of artmcd men the hum; Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum,— Saying, 'Come,

Freemen, come

Ere your heritage be wasted,' said the quick alarming drum."