The verse is not of the very hest quality, but

it will please, we My Rook of History-Tales. (Edward Arnold.)—Some forty odd fancy. The chief fault that we find in it is an eccasional touch incidents in English history are herein put into simple language

more suited to " grown-ups " than to children,— for children of tender years, and the volume will make an accept- " Oh I the glory of strife and struggle I

As the sea said to me." able present for a child ready to receive the first elementary But if the sea did say so, it would not have been understood, knowledge of history. Perhaps the best, from the literary point of view, is the fol- Scarlet Town. By H. May Pointer. (S.P.C.K.)—A pretty little lowing :— story is " Scarlet Town," being the short history of a love-affair

Once on a time, before I was born,

Jack in the corner his pie began, longer. Miss Muffot away from the spider ran, • Little Bo-peep was dreaming fast ;

Fingers were pointed a Dirty Dan,

The wolf in a night-cap lay to trepan But whore are the toys of Christmas last ?

And the royal White Cat who lay under a ban ?

As they listen for Bluebeard's voice, aghast ?

ENVOI.

And the toys you play with when you're a man, If the " educational ladder," as the connection between primary Will break like the toys of Christmas last." and Fecondo,ry schools is sometimes called, always worked as well We have something of the same fault to find with A String of as it did for Philip Grandcourt, it would be an admirable thing. Beads. By Lady Lindsay. (A. and C. Black.)—This also is a The jealous affection of Mrs. Green for the changeling, whom she volume of " verses for children." But there are not a few words finds so different from herself, is well described. in it, not to speak of thoughts, which children of average intel-

Sable and White: the Autobiography of a Show-Dog. By Gordon ligence and knowledge would hardly be able to understand. Let Stables. (Jerrold and Sons.)—This is good, but there is too much any one try a child of eight, or ten, or, even, it may be, twelve, of it. That it is a great hardship upon a dog to be exhibited is with the following : "Requiem," "pensive," " vagaries," " thrall," doubtless true ; and the fact may be conveniently brought " cerulean." Yet there are some very good things in the volume, home to a reader by letting a dog tell the story of his trouble. things which children will understand, and ought to like, if they But there is a limit to be observed. The hero is a collie, who had have any taste. Here is a specimen :—

Ere he took his flight to a southern clime, home of my childhood, and bide my time.'

Will not servo you either for food or bad.'

Cannot pierce warm rod feathers, And blue skies would cheer _you, and tempt yon to sing.'

Winds blow and mine pelter, In lands that afar to the southward lie.'

And in my own country I'll live or I'll die.' " "When I was a littlo child, My mother asked me for fun one day: If the child was so small that she had to be "carried upstairs,"