3 NOVEMBER 1894, Page 11

Denny Dick. By Mary Bell. (S.P.C.K.)—Be good to an orphan,

and you will be rewarded, if not by receiving £100 from his missin 4 father, as did Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Cooling, just when their need was the sorest, yet somehow or at some time. This is the moral of Denny Dick. We must criticise, however, the plot, so far as it concerns the child's destitute condition. The account cf the mother's conduct seems quite beyond all bonuth of proba-

bility. Her husband goes to Australia, ii being settled that she is to follow him ; instead of this she disappears with her child, and finding it hard to earn her living, disappears again, locking the child up in the house which she leaves. This was the conduct of a lunatic.