In a Sea-Bird's Nest : a Series of Stories, some
Allegorical. By Frances Clare. (Skeffington and Son.)—This is a sequel to Miss Clare's "A Child's Pilgrimage ;" indeed some of the allegorical stories which appear in it have also appeared in the previous volume. It possesses both the strength and the weakness of it predecessor. It is written in a truly " sympathetic " spirit ; but itis also marked by a certain almost fussy effusiveness, showing itself in such sentences as "Old and brown was Mbre Babette, yea, and patient with a patience almost like that of one of the Saints of God—those Saints whom she saw in the church windows on Sabbath days and on festivals, in garments of purple and crimson, with branches of palms in their hands, and round their heads ts golden halo of glory." At the same time several of the stories told in this book are very readable, such as the first, which tells how "The City of New Orleans" goes down on "Jenifer's Needle," and how the younger of two brothers who are on board, and who are both in love with "the young singer, Clarice Rosevear," sacrifices himself for the elder, whom she prefers. Another good story of its kind is " Angelo's Angel," which tells with almost maudlin pathos the story of a clown and his wife and his child, and of how he is saved from theft by the memory of his "lost darling." Of another story, "The Cardinal's Lilacs," the writer assures U3 that it "embodies actual facts as they occurred in the life of oue who was a close personal friend of the writer."
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