23 DECEMBER 1893, Page 24

tive writing in this story of a boy and a

girl and an impossible but penitent father. Cherry and Peter, and Tom's evil genius, Joe Sproule, are admirably sketched. Most childish readers will think that Peter receives rather too severe a punishment—in the

shape of permanently indifferent health—for breaking a promise. The sea incidents are well narrated. It is a mistake, however—

which shows that Mrs. Marshall is not familiar with the conforma- tion of the west coast of Scotland—to talk of a ship " making Glasgow port."