Beryl : the Story of a Child. By Georgina M.
Synge. (Skeffington and Son.)—This is a short but clever and artistic study in child- character. Beryl, the daughter of a very simple but learned man, is a bit of a spitfire, and in a spitfire's temper, kills two pet white rats, and then prays naively, " 0 God, I am awfully sorry I killed them. If you would only make them live again like you did Lazarus. But I don't believe you will ! I wish you would answer just once—only once—just to show you are real." But she is in- capable of telling a lie, and so she finds it very hard to forgive her schoolboy brother Gerald, who purloins her money and concocts a story to conceal the theft. The reconciliation between Beryl and the aunt whom she " hates," but who, by the death of her father, is left her guardian, is admirably managed. Altogether, this is one of the best books which deal with the difficult problem of the discipline of a childish mind that have recently been published.
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