CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
How Tack Mackenzie Won his Epaulets. By Gordon Stables. (T. Nelson and Sons.)—This is one of the best stories Dr. Gordon Stables has ever written. It is quite as full of contagious enthu- siasm as usual, but it is better compacted, and in it the author shows less disposition than usual to run off at a tangent from his proper subject. It is the story of a poor Glasgow boy, who goes by the name of "Johnnie Greybreeks," but who on Christmas night makes the friendship of well-to-do people, and in the end turns out to be really Jack Mackenzie, and a relative of his benefactors. He progresses as good and clever boys usually do, and ultimately figures as one of the minor heroes of the Crimean war. Perhaps it is quite unnecessary to say that in the end he marries Violet Dawson, a little girl who, in the beginning of the story, shows herself not at all unwilling to " tiss " him in his plebeian character of "Johnnie Greybreeks." It is equally needless to say that he has an abundance of adventures, and that the story of them is vigorously told. Johnnie is well drawn, and so are his early friend Tom Dawson, his sister Maggie, and his friends Reikie and Sturdy. Perhaps there is a trifle too much match-making at the end of the book, and Dr. Stables might have saved his readers the little maps he introduces here and there. Boys—even the most intelligent boys—do not like to have "lessons" in the hours they give up to Jules Verne fiction.
Previous page
