The Rectory Children. By Mrs. Molesworth. Illustrated by Walter Crane.
(Macmillan and Co.)—Mrs. Moles worth, content as usual to work on a small scale, and with very modest colours, does not fail to produce an excellent effect. In The Rectory Children, she takes for her heroine one of those queer, troublesome children who, with their perversity, wilfulness, and what seems persistent bad luck in all that they put their halide to, are the despair of all but the very wisest and most patient of mothers and teachers. Bridget Vane—the girl-child of this species is even more impracticable than the boy—is awkward, cantankerous, short-tempered, and with a genius for getting into mischief. The problem to be solved is, how to make her into something. It is solved partly by the help of a certain little Celestine Fair- child and her mother, daughter and wife of a bookseller in the town in which the " Rectory children " take up their abode, and partly by the results of a, remarkable piece of naughtiness on the part of Miss Biddy herself. For the little creature, who will believe that she can get to a certain lighthouse, nearly gets drowned in the attempt, and as nearly kills her father, who attempts to rescue her. A very pretty story this, and one from which a mother may learn as much as a child.
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