Walsh the Wonder Worker. By G. Manville Fenn. (W. and
R. Chambers. 5s.)—Mr. Manville Fenn knows boys and the way they talk to each other, and in this story revels in all the retorts and challenges and inconsistencies that a friendship of two boys ieveals to the reader. Alf and Frank live in the country, and have a pretty full knowledge of birds and beasts, but they are compelled to admit their inferiority to a fisherman who catches the shy carp, to their intense admiration. Walsh, the mysterious owner of the Dyke house, turns out to be a most amiable person, a chemist desirous of privacy; the gentle fisherman, alas! a great disappointment. The real interest of the tale attaches to the boys, who are genuine boys, the incidents and other characters exhibiting nothing specially worthy of remark. Walsh the Wonder Worker is, we must admit, a little thin regarded as a story,— distinctly padded, in fact. The best thing in it is the description
of the fishin' g and the boys' midnight trespass into the chemist's laboratery. Joe Goodsel, the carrier, is an amusing character; for the rest, it is a wholesome, readable story.
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