Good Cheer, being the Christmas Number of Goad Words. (Isbistor
and Co.)—Christmas numbers, as a ;ale, seem to us a mistake,—their literature is, for the most part, of so ephemeral a character. But Good Cheer is an exception, It is mere supererogation to say that the first of the two stories is well worth preserving, for it is Anthony Trollope's,—one of his light, clever, amusing, Christmas brochures, full of humour and good-natured satire. But the second tale is by an authoress—Miss Linskill—not nearly so well known as, judging by this story, she deserves to be. " Hagar " is a Yorkshire-moor and seaside sketch ; and it is a long time since we have read any- thing more perfect of its kind. The delicate descriptions of the lovely dale and grand cliff scenery could not be more beautiful, nor could the rugged Yorkshire force,—both of love and anger,—be better displayed than they are in their own graphic dialect. Hagar, the beautiful, clever, loving cottage-girl ; Fane, the poor, sensitive, hard. worked schoolmaster, on his lonely moor ; the old tell-bar man ; the passionate, obstinate squire and his equally determined son—one and all are admirable portraits, not soon to be forgotten, The picture of the young man,—killed by a fall of rock, lying with his dead face turned to the stormy skies through the long night, while his father, broken down by remorse, watulies for the dawn to look upon his son once more, unable even, till the morning brings men, to rescue the body of the son he so passionately loves, and has so ruthlessly driven from his door,—is one of remarkable power and very original conception. Miss Liuskill must come to the front, and she supports the old traditions of careful and cultivated English; her style is as refined as it is forcible.
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