Forged in Strong Fires. By John Ironside. (Methuen and Co.
Os.) —This is a story of the Boer War, powerful both in the conception and the telling. The first chapter gives us a dramatic situation. There is a festive gathering at Fairfontein in the Transvaal, a three days' picnic in the mountains, a gay scene but shadowed for eyes which could see a little way into the future by trouble near at hand. Here we are introduced to the Granville family—father, mother, and five daughters, the eldest of whom, Joyce, is the heroine of the tale, and a most effective heroine too. The father finds himself in a dilemma. Ho is a Transvaal citizen, and he cannot be false to the land of his adoption ; he is an Englishman, and he cannot fight against his countrymen. He sends his family to England, but Joyce elects to remain with him. He meets the fate which is sure to overtake the conscientious neutral in such a struggle, and thereafter we are concerned with tho fortunes of his daughter. They hold us with an unflagging interest. The tolling of them shows an intimate knowledge of the country, its inhabit- ants, black and white ; along with a penetrating insight into character and what in such a subject is of the highest importance, a faculty of seeing clearly and without prejudice the whole situa- tion of Boor against Briton. We must not forget to mention the admirable figure of Lalelo, the dumb Kaffir girl-nurso in the Granville family—not a heroine by any means, but the most faithful of creatures.
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