7 DECEMBER 1895, Page 14

The Young Ranchers. By Edward S. Ellis. (Cassell and Co.)—

The second title, "Fighting the Sioux," indicates the scene of this story. The time, we imagine, is recent. Mr. Ellis has woven his incidents together into a good plot, though it is always better, if possible, in a short story to have single and unin- terrupted action. Still, no reader will have to complain of want of interest. The style of the dialogue is a little too formal. When the elder Starr is making his escape with his wife and child, and has to ford a stream, the wife remarks, "It is not broad and may not be deep," the husband replies—but surely not in the vigorous idiom of the West—" That can be ascertained only by investigation."