Tom Tug and Others. (Seeley and Co. 6s.)—Close and sym-
pathetic observation, linked to a pleasant sense of humour and a lively style, lend attractiveness to Mrs. Dew-Smith's " sketches in a domestic menagerie." ' Tom Tug,' a most delightful bulldog, is fairly entitled to the title-r8le, but he is run hard by Abel' the Schipperke, and the plebeian and aristocratic cats, ' Tom Jones' and ' Tiger.' The first meeting of ' Tom Tug' and ' Abel,' when the latter was a small puppy, is charmingly described :—" He was the most mournful-looking puppy I have ever seen; and was in appearance more like a tiny black pig than a puppy-dog. ` Tom Tug,' the bulldog, was at the time a clumsy, loose-limbed puppy of about six months old, and was given to wild fits of boisterous high spirits. The arrival of the Schipperke
was the signal for one of these After a few excited sniffs and ecstatic waggles, in which he apparently made an effort to control his emotion, he suddenly cast all restraints to the wind, and indulged in a fit of hysterical delight, mingled with blandishments apparently designed to beguile the Schipperke. He tore round and round the lawn at full speed with his tail between his legs, and then prostrated himself coaxingly on his front paws before the little black pig, who gazed at him sorrowfully and quite unmoved. Then he made a pounce at him, licked him all over, and tore off agiin. Returning to the charge, he rolled on his back and kicked all his legs in the air in the most engaging manner, and prostrated himself again. In short, he made a perfect fool of himself. And all to no purpose. His blandishments did not produce one sympathetic gleam from the Schipperke's eye." Mrs. Dew-Smith, we should add, is a lover rather than an idolater of dogs ; but how genuine her feeling is may be gathered from the chapter on " Cruelty to Animals," which closes with the following pretty fancy :—" As a child, one of my favourite dreams was that of a second Noah's Ark. Into it all the animals at the Zoo and elsewhere in captivity should march two by two, and, journeying round the world, it should deposit them all on the shores of their native land. It was a pleasant dream, and its only drawback was that it made no arrangement for the chained-up dogs and wild birds in cages." Miss Monsell's illustrations are full of spirit and character; but the device of crowding together several small and independent sketches on a single page leaves little scope for composition.
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