20 DECEMBER 1890, Page 25

Floss Silverthorne. By Agnes Giberne. (John F. Shaw.)—It is a

pity that the very genuine piety in this book is so emphasised as almost to become—or at least to seem—unctuosity, and slightly to mar the story, which is a simple but rather a good one in its way. In it we are told how Floss Silverthorn and her big brother Hugh are evicted—through no fault of the evictor—from the house they have got to like, by Colonel Marshall ; how Floss makes herself indispensable, on the death of a child, in the house of the Mar- shalls ; and how, after a period of unsuccessful experiments, all ends well for Hugh as well as for herself. Floss is an admirable study of a simple-hearted, well-reared, and self-sacrificing child.