The Wonderful Garden. By E. Nesbit. (Macmillan and Co. 68.)
—Miss Nesbit has a very lively imagination and a very pretty gift of humour. Three children go on a visit to their uncle Charles. They are learned in the language of flowers, and they are firm believers in magic, so that it be of the "white" kind. Of these two things an excellent use is made. A child who knows what a flower stands for must be deeply interested in making nosegays. Caroline, for instance, gives a great bunch of ivy and marigold to her aunt Emmeline. "Ivy means friendship," she explains, "and the marigolds don't count. They were put in for their colour." "But if they must count, then they mean cruelty." The donor might seem to be in a hole. She explains : " Fates you le:low, because you are not coming." The spells are delightful, all the more because the three are joined by another companion who does not believe in them. Then we have a touch of real life, how the children had saved the " Mineral Woman " from being turned out of her old home. Altogether this is a delightful book very prettily illustrated by Mr. H. P. Minn*.
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