Under the Apple-Tree. By C. H. Lyall. (J. F. Shaw
and Co.) — This is a story in which the old rhyme that apportions a different lot to the children born on each day of the week is ingeniously introduced. A pretty little tale it is, and appropriately illustrated. —Twice Four. Stories by E. Nesbit, Mrs. Genie (" M. E. B."), and others. (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)—This volume contains eight stories, meant for quite young readers. The coloured Pictures are particularly pretty, and the illustrations generally above the average ; while the tales, simple as they are, will not he found wanting in interest.—Much the same praise may be given to another volume, from the same publishers, Some Sweet Stories of Old, by the Rev. C. J. Ridgway, illustrated by Henry Rowland and May Bowley. "Boys of Bible-Story "—viz., Ishmael, Moses, Samuel, Josiah, the son of the Shunemite woman, th3 Baptist, and the Child Jesus—are the subjects of the "stories."—Granny's Wonderful Chair. By Frances Browne. (Same publishers.)—This is a reprint of a volume which was first published in 1856, with illustrations by Kenny Meadows, and has been reprinted several times, a measure of popular favour which was not undisturbed. A "Publisher's Note" gives a very curious piece of information. It seems that in February, 1887, Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett published in St. Nicholas the "Story of Prince Fairy-Foot," which was to be the first of a series to be called "Stories from the Lost Fairy_ Book," with an explanation that in her childhood she had had a book of fairy-tales given to her, had lost the volume, had never been able to find it again or to get it elsewhere, and now intended to rewrite them from memory. The tale is somewhat expanded, and considerably altered in the rewriting. But the strange thing is that, considering new editions of the book had appeared in 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1884, Mrs. Burnett's inquiries led to no discovery. Perhaps if she had asked some one to look in the catalogue of the British Museum, instead of going to "a friend in the Congressional Library at Washington," they might have been more successful.
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