Fritz and Eric; or, the Brother Crusoes. By John C.
Hutcheson. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—This book is not improved by having had to be extended to regulation length (120,000 words, we should say, according to the curious reckoning which publishers now adopt). Mr. Hutcheson's element is the sea ; but he finds it necessary to take as through a great part of the Franoo-German war. (He shows, by the way, some anti-German feeling. Sorely the German plundering was a trifle to what the French have commonly done.) The sea part of the story is good enough. The main incident is that the two heroes settle on an inaccessible island near Tristan d'Acnnha, make money by seal-fishing, and supplement it by a discovery of Spanish doubloons. Of coarse, they have to go there, and they have to come back ; and going and coming back occupy space and pages. Altogether, the "Crewe" part of the business occupies but 168 pages out of 424.
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