PEACOCK PIE.•
Ice the years that have passed since Stevenson brought out his Child's Garden of Verses we have not seen a prettier book of rhymes for children than this. Mr. De In Mare attains simplicity without an effort, and his graceful little verses, sometimes enlivened with a whimsical humour, will, we are sure, be popular in the nursery. There is " Poor Henry," for example :-
"Thick in its glass The physic stands, Poor Henry lifts Distracted hands ; His round cheek wane In the candlelight, To smell that smell To see that sight 1" Or there is " Minis " :— " Jeinima is my name, But oh ! I have another ; My father always calls me Meg, And so do Bob and mother ; Only my sister, jealous of The strands of my bright hair, Jemima,—Mima—Mima 1 ' Calls, mocking, up the stair."
The collection has s great deal of variety, and ends on a graver note in an exquisite little " Song of Shadows "
Sweep thy faint strings, Musician, With thy long lean hand ; Downward the starry tapers burn, Sinks soft the waning sand ; The old hound whimpers couched in sleep, The embers smoulder low ; Across the wall the shadows Come, and go."
The poet, in this new edition, is fortunate in his sympathetic illustrator, Mr. W. Heath Robinson, whose charming designs reflect by turns the gaiety and sentiment of the verses.
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