14 NOVEMBER 1891, Page 25

The Boys of Prior's Dean. By Phcebe Allan. (John Hogg.)—

Most of the boys who give the title to this stcr.7 are either very naughty or very weak. Very naughty is Ernest Ford, the leader of the gang of bullies that stone jackdaws and flout Fowler, alias " Growler," the sexton ; and very weak is Luke Roy, who allows other people, and himself as well, to believe that it is he, and not Ford, who has almost killed Stephen Fowler with a flint. The Boys of Prior's Dean is, of course, a story with a moral ; but that moral is not obtruded unnecessarily. Some of the characters, notably old " Growler " and " Long-Tongued Tottie," are excep- tionally well drawn.