A New Broom. By Ellen Louisa Davis. (Religious Tract Society.)
—It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that the "new broom" who figures in this story is a clergyman. Ernest Wootton is his name, and he makes his appearance on the scene thus :—" Here am I, without a grain of real ministerial experience, planted down among shy, suspicious, unreliable people, so dense that I cannot hope to arouse them, while I am nevertheless answerable to their souls before God. I wish I had been ordained to an East-End curacy instead of that butterfly congregation at St. Raphael's in Sea- hampton." This short story tells how Mr. Wootton gets acclima- tised in his new sphere, how he gets into the hearts of " bumpkins " and choir-boys, and even how he helps in love-affairs. At the end, and in spite of a somewhat tragic romance in his own life, there is a prospect of marriage for him. All things considered, A New Broom is a good, healthy, natural story, well written, and full of lifelike character-sketches.
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