The Heart of the Ancient Wood. By Charles D. G.
Roberts. (Gay and Bird. 6s.)—This is as charming a book as we have seen for a long time. Kirstie Craig and her daughter, named, by a happy prevision, Miranda, settle in a clearing in the "Ancient Weed." There the girl acquires a strange mastery over the creatures of the place, making a special ally of Kroof,' a very large she-bear.—the bear being, as Mr. Roberts truly says, "by far the most human of all the furry woodfolk, the most versatile and largely tolerant, the least enslaved by its sur- roundings." Kroof,' indeed, becomes a bodyguard; her on- slaught on the tramps is one of the best things in the book. The whole is good ; but this, and the gallant defence of the calf Michael' against the panther by the plough ox, and Kroof ' again when she drives off another panther and makes her first friend- ship with Miranda, are excellent. Excellent, too, is the manage- ment, of the inevitable " Ferdinand." The love-making is very subtly given, and the end of the story, which is purposely made of the slightest, is most pathetic. Whether any human being ever had such a mastery over the animals as is ascribed to Miranda—there are not wanting similar stories in the legends of the saints—we cannot say. Anyhow, the description is nothing less than fascinating, while reason is satisfied by the final Vindication of the claims of the human.
Previous page
