CHILDREN'S Booss.—Nothing could be more charming than the Verse books
for Children, written by Juliana Horatia Ewing, pictures by R. Andre. (S. P. C. K.) There are six of them, " Master Fritz," a charming little parable of life, in which Mrs. Ewing cannot resist some sly strokes of satire at masculine selfishness; "Soldiers' Children," in which, among other things, Master Dick invents, with great credit to himself, a "Sunday-game" of soldiers; "Three Little Nest-birds " (which ought to be put by for next spring) ; " Our Garden ;" " The Doll's Wash," wherein certain young ladies learn by experience that " a week's wash isn't all play ;" and, perhaps, most delightful of all, "A Sweet Little Dear," a true story, which might be matched in families without number, of a spoilt darling. We mast give one specimen of Mrs. Ewing's amusing recitative :-
"' If I should fail to be all a mother ought,—oh, how my head throbs when the dear child jumps ;' and then nurse said, Ugh !
" When you're worried into your grave, she'll have no mother at all, and '11 have to tumble up as other folks do.
" ' There's the poor master at his wits' end—a child's not all a grown person has to think of—and Miss Jane would do well if she had less of her own way.
" But there's more children spoilt with care than the want of it, and more mothers murdered than there's folk hanged for, and that's what I say.'"
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