A Little Western Flower, by M. C. Helmer° (Marcus Ward
and Co.), fairly keeps up to the average merit of the "Blue Bell" series, to which it belongs. It is a love-story, diversified with certain surprises of a somewhat melodramatic kind. The heroine is a sufficiently well drawn person, leaving a distinct impression on the mind, and some of the minor characters are sketched with fair skill. The plot requires, perhaps, a little more trouble to follow than it is quite expedient to -demand from a reader. To make everything quite clear as to the present and quite obscure as to the future is the ideal of a plot.— Brownie, by C. W. Bardsley, another volume in the same series, is of more than usual merit. Strictly speaking, perhaps, this praise should be confined to the more humorous part. The boy-life is very vigorously described, and the cricket-match is a picture which may be advan- tageously compared to any previous efforts of the same kind. The tragic portion is conceived with some dramatic power, but it is spoiled by too grandiose a style.
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