23 DECEMBER 1893, Page 23

Puzzles. By Edith E. Smyth. (Religious Tract Society.)—The plot of

this story is to tell how a lonely bachelor, who one Christ- mas invites some nephews and nieces to stay with him, entertains them, and how they, in return, entertain him, and what is the result for them and him of his actions. There is nothing very re- markable about the story: but it is written with good sense and good feeling, and has a lesson to teach, if a reader should care to learn.