Red Apple and Silver Bells. By Hamish Hendry. Illustrated by
Alice B. Woodward. (Blackie and Son.)—Mr. Hendry's "verses for children of all ages" are fairly good, but not quite up to the mark of the best article of the kind. The illustrations have a certain fanciful grace, which will probably please the older more than the younger of the large public for which they are intended. The boy sitting before the fire with the angel bending over him seems to us not quite the boy of real life, nor are his thoughts what such a boy thinks :— "Strange people there I see,
In places jest as strange; Bright palaces there be Red knights that beckon me ;— With change that follows change.
A fiery Castle goes, And leaves a Lion's den A flaming Banner blows,
Where grew a Crimson Rose ;— Then all is changed again.
With head on hand I sit Before the magic fire ; Deep in the midst of it I see the fair things flit, The Things of Heart's desire."
To see shapes in the fire is not, we fancy, the habit of the usual boy. He is commonly impatient for the lights to be brought, and with the lights the shapes disappear.
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