The Post Woman. By Emily Pearson Finnemore. (S.P.C.K.) —Kezia Panter
tries the unusual, but not altogether unprece- dented, course of carrying the letters. Her father had united this occupation with that of keeping of the village shop, and his daughter divides the two between them. There are difficulties in the practical side, especially if the postwoman is good-looking, and is delayed by offers of marriage, or is afraid of geese and dogs. But for the purposes of the teller of stories the situation serves well. This tale does not rely on incident for its interest. There is little of this but the well-worn complication of a fortune involuntarily acquired and acting as an obstacle in the course of true love. But in the way of character-drawing there is plenty, and that of good quality. The village gossips generally, Lucy Jane, a humble follower of Mrs. Poyser, and the shiftless Luke, who immortalises himself by the saying, when the pigs have to miss their supper, "It'll be a chance for 'em t' make one of them rows o' lean as ye wa' sayin' about in the bacon,"—all these and others are decidedly good.
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