Nobody's Baby. By Tom Gallon. (Eveleigh Nash. 6s.) —I very
pathetic idea is embodied in this charming story—an idea such as Mrs. Oliphant would have loved—and it furnishes a con- venient plot on which to hang a subsidiary romance. A widower who has lost wife and child keeps the nursery specially prepared for the anniversary return of his little daughter. More than this we refrain from disclosing. It is worked out with much skill and tenderness by Mr. Tom Gallon, and with the added fascination for children of a little heroine steeped in fairy-lore, a good- natured, half-witted " giant " for her guardian, and a "fairy prince," who is the hero of the subsidiary romance. It is told with a simplicity, finish, and restraint that enable us to class it as a piece of true literature both as regards style and plot. That somewhat intangible quality, style, is immediately evident, and serves to distinguish Nobody's Baby at once. It is a charming story, and all its characters are interesting and human ; and we shall be surprised if children do not find the history of Prudence, the giant, and peppery old Captain Clasper quite as good as many a fairy-story they have been reading. We would they had more tales of this stamp, for our own sakes as much as theirs.
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