18 NOVEMBER 1899, Page 8

The Odds and the Evens. By Mrs. L T. Meade.

(W. and H. Chambers. 5s.)—Mrs. Meade must have the credit of putting out of her mind, with a singleness of purpo se which few writers attain, the thought of pleasin,:r 17rovrn-up readers. Obviously she has written in this book for the children, and the children only. We can easily imagine that young matlers will be delighted with the circumstantial account of how the Carrington children and the Frere children, respectively called from their numbers the Odds and the Evens, carry on war, with truces, colloquies, and all the rest of it. The situation is interesting when the antagon- ists live in the same square ; it becomes exciting when the parents (who are kept in the dark) take a big country house together.