15 OCTOBER 1892, Page 23

A Little Norsk. By Hamlin Garland. (T. Fisher Unwin.)— The

" Little Norsk," Elga by name, otherwise called " Flaxen," is a child whom two bachelor settlers on the Dakota plateau bring up. She is found in a neighbour's hut, her mother lying

frozen to death by her side, while her father had perished in the snow trying to get help. The situation, delightful enough while "Flaxen" is a child, and producing complications when she grows into a woman, is described both humorously and pathetically. The story, in fact, is distinctly good ; but perhaps the most striking khing in it is the picture of the pitiless Dakota winter, and of the delights of returning spring, proportionately great to the horrors to which they succeed.