An Old-Field School-Girl. By Marion Harland. (Sampson Low, Marston, and
Co.)—We must explain that an " old-field " is a piece of ground exhausted by growing tobacco or some other crop and left to recruit. Such fields were naturally utilised, when suitably situated, for the building of school houses. The scene is laid, as may be guessed, in Virginia, the time is ante bellum, the heroine is the daughter of the overseer of a plantation. Felicia, commonly known as " Flea," Grigsby—Virginian parents were wont to give fine names to their children and abridge them disrespectfully—is a clever, dreamy child. The story turns on the battle that is fought between her and the cold-blooded, cruel man who takes charge of the "Old-Field School." The contrast between the two is powerfully given and very effective, while the general picture of plantation life as it was in the old slavery days is admirable. We could have wished that Miss Harland could have found it in her heart to make a less tragical ending to her story.
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