The February Bays. By Mrs. Molesworth. (W. and IL Chambers.
35. 6d.)—The plot, if it can be called a plot, of this charmingly told story turns on the jealousy which little Rolf feels for the new arrival, who displaces him from tho post of youngest, a jealousy which ends in an unusually deep attachment, so deep that they cannot be parted when the time comes for the elder to go to school. It is told as only Mrs. Molesworth can tell a simple and familiar story of family life. She preserves the talk of children and "grown-ups" in all its naturalness, yet with a literary touch that seems to he denied to her contemporaries, who portray character well enough, but can only reproduce a stilted dialogue which is neither one thing nor the other. Her children are delightful because she does not find it necessary to make them precocious to attract us ; they are just children, and we can give no higher praise. If mater- familias wants a book to read aloud, she cannot do better than take up the story of Rolf and Chris, the "February Boys "—so called because born in that month, and in itself an attractive title—and we can assure her that the judgment of the audience will leave no doubt as to Mrs. Molesworth's skill. The illustrator has drawn some pretty pictures, but to our thinking knows more about puppies than pigs.
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