23 DECEMBER 1865, Page 20

Ernie Elton, the Lazy Boy. By Elizabeth Eiloart. (Routledge.) Agatha,

or Sketches of School Life in England and France; and The two books together, as they both contain a good deal of fun, and are intended for corresponding ages in boys and girls, say from ten to twelve or so. Mrs. Packer's girls are certainly more natural than Mrs. Eiloart's boys, and there are scenes of greater merit in her volume, but that was to be expected; a lady's boys are sure to have a mark of their

07F11., and Mrs. Eiloart deserves great credit for the amount of reality she has invested them with, and the really amusing scrapes into which she entraps her lazy and greedy hero. Both volumes are fairly illustra- ted, but Mrs. Packer has had greater pains bestowed upon her matter, which it quite deserves, by the binder and the printer.