PEEP-IN-THE-WORLD.
A Story for Children.
By Mrs. F. E. CRICHTON.
Illustrated by Harry Rountree. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
The author of this charming tale ought to take rank with such writers as Mrs. Molesworth in the category of childhood's literature. The story tells of a little girl who visits her uncle in Germany and spends a year in an old castle on the borders of a forest. There she finds everything new and delightful. She makes friends with a dwarf cobbler, who lives alone in a hut in the forest, and knows the speech of animals and birds. Knut, the cobbler, is something of a hermit and a misanthrope, but he is conquered by Peep-in-the-World, whom he eventually admits to the League of Forest Friends. She wants him to teach her how to talk to the wild things of the woods, and though she has to leave Germany without learning the secret, she gains a growing sense of the magic power of sympathy and kindness.
LONDON SIDE-LIGHTS.
By CLARENCE ROOK.
With Frontispiece by S. de la Bere. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The author of these entertaining sketches has taken his place as an ordinary Londoner who is a journalist as well. He has walked and ridden about London with pennies in his pocket, eyes in his head, and a brain behind the eyes. He has found secrets of London hotels, he has pierced the problem of London traffic, he has been to queer boxing contests, and he has been present at the birth of the popular song. He has sat in the gallery of the House of Commons, and in the newspaper office that cuts and carves its speeches. And he knows the story of the famous block in Piccadilly. He has found, too, the problem of the London woman who is alone. The problem also of those London children whom the Salvation Army rescues. And at the end comes the 'Bath of Silence,' which gives the City peace.