GIFT-BOOKS.
RISEN FROM THE RATINGS.*
SOME years ago in a short story Mr. Gleig gave us consider- able entertainment by making an " A.B." pose as someone in a different station of life; now he has developed the idea into one of the most absorbing and interesting yarns ever put into the hands of a boy. Fortunately older men will be able to read it with equal zest. Other writers have handled similar material, but perhaps not the possible career of a naval im- postor. The origin of the daring plan of Thomas Larkspur " first-class boy" of H.M.S. ' Victor,' a Dreadnought cruiser, is simple enough. He stretches his leave a little too much, and a reward is offered for his capture. Tramping on foot to join his ship, he comes to a village, and is offered shelter by the landlord of the ' Fatted Calf,' himself an ex-chief gunner's mate. During the night a motor car comes to grief in the village, and the occupant, one Seymour Palliser, an ill-bred snobbish midshipman, who is also joining the 'Victor,' his first ship, has perforce to sleep in the same room. The ship's boy has to go early, for the village constable is already on the scent, and Tommy, seeing his companion still asleep, conceives the idea of exchanging clothes with the arrogant middy. Then the fun begins and is kept up to the very last. Given a boy of pluck and nerve and with a certain amount of savoir faire, there is nothing so very improbable in the notion. Possession, as they say, is nine-tenths of the law. Young Larkspur commits some frightful blunders, but he has pluck and readiness and a sense of humour. One, two, three people discover him, but attracted by something likable in the boy refuse to give him away, and are, of course, fascinated by the sporting element in the imposture. There has, of course, to be an unusual incident to give Tommy a chance for establishing himself in the good graces of the officers, but nothing out of the way, only implying the posses- sion of just those qualities a rough diamond is likely to have. Young Larkspur's imposture is sustained to a large extent by the bad temper and lack of common sense of the parvenu Palliser, who behaves so outrageously and is so incoherent that be plays the sham middy's game. Tommy gives himself away again and again, and we simply hold our breath ; but he recovers himself, and after all we are "in the know" and his messmates are not, and the improbability of the fraud always counts heavily in his favour. The only doubt that assails us is, would not his absolute ignorance of mathe- matics and other class subjects have led to his exposure ? Mr. Gleig manages to make him barely pass muster as a young cadet fresh from Dartmouth, and if he can make his readers believe that—and we can conceive his passing muster under the circumstances—he has done the cleverest thing in the book. We will wager that no better boy's book will be written this year. (We may add that this notice was written without the knowledge that Contraband Tommy was a prize story.)
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