1 DECEMBER 1888, Page 24

inspire us with any interest. It is certainly to be

hoped that no such persons as Alma Ryan and her grandmother really exist; if

they do, their conversation is most unnatural and stilted, and would soon become unbearable. The style, too, is just the opposite to what it should be, presuming that it is meant for children. The writer should understand by this time that the frequent habit of dragging Scriptural quotations into conversation is to be strictly avoided. The writer's knowledge of children, if, indeed, she pos- sesses any, should have prevented such a fault. It is decidedly bad taste, and children themselves would be the first to notice it.