With Roberts to Pretoria. By G. A. Henty. (Blackie and
See 5s )—Mr. Henty's hero is the son of a parson ; it is always com- forting to know that, for he is made of the very best material. A bank smashes, and Yorke Harberton goes to a cousin's farm in the Orange Free State. A quarrel between him and a young Boer makes it expedient for him to go down to Cape Town on the eve of the Ultimatum. He becomes under Mr. Henty's able handling a great scout, and contrives to do many dangerous things, to get captured, and yet to escape so that be is present at all the actions of Methuen's advance, at Kimberley, at Mafeking, and also at Paardeberg. Mr. Henty uses the privilege of a story-teller to the utmost, and Yorke makes time in extra- ordinary fashion. There is a great deal of the war-correspondent in Mr. Henty's criticisms and descriptions, yet we lack the real fire in the actual fighting, and one wishes in vain that the writer would let himself go. Here and there are touches which show Mr. Henty knows the value of attention to details in enabling readers to realise. While we are with the scout the narrative moves briskly enough, and there is plenty of incident. The battles are good in their way, especially that of the Modder River. The hero talks a great deal too much to the big men, who are also made to talk too much—though that appears to be a universal failing—and the conversations are too grammatical, nay, too sensible, and too lacking in idiomatic vigour to carry conviction. Nevertheless, a boy will gather some useful impressions from this story of the operations from the Cape Colony base, and enjoy some stirring episodes of a scout's life.
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