7 NOVEMBER 1891, Page 10

The Rudder Grangers Abroad. By Frank Stockton. (Sampson Low, Marston,

and Co.)—No one who has read " Rudder Grange" but will be glad to hear of its inmates again. Three of the stories in this volume tell of their doings. In the first, husband and wife go for an excursion among the Florida reefs, and enjoy the fishing, among other things. This amusement Euphemia describes to a friend in the North in these graphic words : "If you want to know what it is like, just tie a long string round your boy Charlie, and try to haul him out of the backyard into the house." In the second story, the inimitable Pomona reappears. His interview with the " Earl Cobden " is excellent, though his Lordship might have put some less commonplace question than the inquiry whether the Americans felt any need of an aristocracy. "Pomona's Daughter " must be the queerest story of child-changing ever told. " Derelict," where two lovers meet on mid-ocean, each in a derelict ship, is a very humorous extravagance, but " The Water-Devil," told by a " sea-soldier," beats it. "I have often heard," remarks one of the audience at the end, "that marines are a class of men who are considered fit subjects to tell tough stories to; but it strikes me that the time has come when the tables are beginning to be turned."