a marriage originating in sordid motives on both sides.

It is to be hoped Mrs. St. JohnBrenon will, on further consideration, either discontinue the work or alter its character. She writes with some power, though not always correctly. Thus, speaking in the past tense, she says, "her heart forebode ill," instead of "foreboded."

Hoho and Haha, and their Adventures Narrated and Illustrated. By Sabilla Novello. London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler. In our last October number we had the pleasure of speaking favourably, with some slight reservation, of Miss Novello's "Bluebeard's Widow and her Sister Ann." Her present work-so far as the letterpress is concernedappears to us still more successful. It is less open to the objection of containing words beyond an ordinary child's comprehension, while it has more unity and completeness as a story. The incidents are more exciting, the characters more strongly marked, the humour is more dramatic, and the practical instruction more prominent, though still gently insinuated rather than forcibly obtruded upon the reader's attention. The quiet, yet effective, way in which pretentious priggishness is put down, and unassuming good sense recommended, is admirable. Of course the adventures are of a romantic cast, but they are so deeply imbued with the sentiment and language of ordinary life as not to be beyond the range of sympathy. The hero and heroine being themselves children naturally excite more interest in children than grown up people could. On the whole, we consider this story admirably adapted to interest, amuse, and instruct young people. While it abundantly ministers to their love of the marvellous and

delight in fun, the healthy tone and sound sense by which it is pervaded cannot fail to steal insensibly into their minds.

We regret it is not in our power to express equal satisfaction with the illustrations, which, though not without grotesque humour in design, are too imperfectly executed to be effectively comic. As in the former work, the figure drawing is far from correct, some of the heads being altogether out of proportion with the rest of the body, and the whole deficient in artistic handling.

Saint Christopher, with Psalm and Song. By M. Baxter. London: Hodder and Stoughton.-Mr. Baxter's Saint Christopher wants the ease, life, and ballad like simplicity with which Mr. Doherty tells the story in his "Legends and Poems," of which we gave a favourable account last month. The remainder of the present volume consists of two or three pieces in versified dialogue, a few metrical versions of Psalins, and a number of hymns, nearly all We quote the last verse of the of which are simply prayers in verse. Easter hymn:

"Come gracious Gardener, to-day,

By tear-blind Marys ever seen;
Both we and our beloved, say,
Shall wake within a garden
green."

Even with the aid of the peculiar punctuation we cannot quite see the meaning of this, still less do we perceive its beauty or fitness.

Mr. Baxter puts the accent on' the second syllable of Emmaus instead of the first. This is a venial error, but his accentuation of the first syllable in oasis is an unpardonable blunder. The publication of so feeble and common-place a production is another blunder, and not at all improved by the affected title.