22 AUGUST 1885, Page 26

Tenants of an Old Farm. By Henry C. M'Cook, D.D.

(Ford, Howard, and Hulbert, New York.)—The "old farm " is a quaint rustic dwelling ; the tenants are, first, the stranger from the city who has been peremptorily ordered to leave his occupations, if he would save his life; and, next, the various insects—as spiders, and the like —which have taken up their abode in the place during a long vacancy. By great good-fortune, the human tenant, when deprived of his ordinary occupations, finds a pleasure in watching the ways of his fellow-occupiers. This volume contains the result of his obser- vations given in the conversational form. The information is given with considerable vivacity, and it is relieved by some humour, first, in the conversational powers of one " Dan']," a coloured labourer, who "represents popular superstitions about insects ;" and, secondly, in the quaint drawings with which Mr. Dan Beard has illustrated the text. There are other illustrations which deal with realities, and which are excellent in their way.