23 JANUARY 1886, Page 25

in literature. These tales are lengthy and, we should say,

tedious. They abound with language beyond the comprehension of their readers, and not always correct. "I was forced," says an autobiographical donkey, in one place, "to lay down." They bring before children doleful and even horrible things, which would be better kept away,—as, in the same story, the wife-beating by Grimes, his death by delirium tremens, and positively his oaths. Still, a reader may make some pretty stories out of these "tales for the little ones ;" only he must abridge and alter liberally.