A Younger Son. By V. Fetherstonhaugh. (Downey and Co. Gs.) — The
hero of Mrs. Fetherstonhaugh's clever novel of English society and North-West Canada is a thoroughly good fellow- And though he gets "more kicks than ha'pence " through child- hood, boyhood, and early manhood, recognition of his many virtues comes to him in middle life, when he gets also the family property and the wife of his heart's desire. Mrs. Fetherstonhaugh is no pessimist, but she is a bit of a realist. She paints with no mincing hand or faint touch the darker side of the colonist farmer's experience. On the contrary, she appears to write mainly for the purpose of showing how tremendous are the temptations to reckless life for the young man far from home and cast among comrades of a rougher and coarser tradition than that of the class in which he has been bred. Darner Grayson, though too little thought of by his own people, has the principle and the manhood that can keep a lad straight and clean any- where. And he has the good heart that can help a weaker brother over a stile and out of a pit. From the point of view of art, the novel is open to criticism. Too many episodes typical of the common problems of everyday life are brought into the plot, in order that we may be shown how good sense and loyalty can solve them wholesomely. But, on the other hand, the solutions are really sound. Moreover, the knowledge of character is as acute as the knowledge of life. And while so many novels of evil purpose are more than tolerated, we have no mind to quarrel with one that is entirely right-minded because its moral points are here and there a little over-emphasised The country house where the old code of manners holds; the London cousins with the "smarter" ways ; the un- sympathetic mother ; the father, a little pompous in his prime, but softening with age; Clara, the comfortable nurse,—all these things are excellently done, and the ensemble is a book that will interest the majority of wholesome-minded readers of both sexes, and may possibly enlarge the view of some.
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