LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3276, 27 December 1916, Page 57

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. "The Homesteaders." By Robert J. C. Stoad. London: T. Fisher Unwm. (Cloth, 3a 6d.) An excellent story of pioneer life in Western Canada. The reader accompanies the young couple John and Marv Sams, in their peaceful conquest of the wild. He sees them start out on the trail with other emigrants, rich in youth, love, and health, but very scantily provided with this world's goods. They are happy and gay and hard-working, they borrow and fend, sharing their goods and their labour as all pioneers do; have their ups and downs, poor crops, and distant markets, but slowly and surely making their way and getting their farm into good condition. Then follows a long interval. The Harrises are prosperous; the country has been opened up; they have many com forts, means of communication, good neighbours, a grown-up son and daughter, and they are still scarcely in middle life. But there is something wrong. The spirit of greed has taken possession of John Harris. He is no longer satisfied with his valuable and well-cultivated farm; he wants more money and more land. Great tracks are being opened up still farther west, and land is to be had almost for the asking ; also his eyes are opened to other ways of making money "not from the farms, but from the farmers." The lure of "easy wealth" seizes him. He becomes selfish, greedy, grasping, _ niggardly in small things, refusing leisure, pleasure, rest to his own family, working them early and late. He quarrels with his devotcrl wife and his capable daughter, and both leave him for a time. He goes farther west and engages in a wild-cat scheme, engineered by a false friend. He sells his- good farm in order to buy a mine which exists only on paper. He loses his hard-earned money, and very nearly pays for his folly with the life of his dearly-loved son. Then he wakes up and sees "his criminal folly in the light of justice and common sense. The story is well told. It relates a phase of pioneer life well known to all. How many men in our midst have ruined ' themselves as John Harris did! How few know when they are well off, or when to cease adding field to field and barn to barn! And, again, how few realise the silent claim of the faithful wife who, having borne the heat and toil of the day, ceases to be considered when all things go well, or of the daughter who is arbitrarily refused the pleasures suited to her age and which her father can well afford. John Harris learns his lesson by bitter experience and a most sensational and thrilling denouement; and the evolution of his character is a fine and sincere piece of work.

"Cloud and Silver." By E. V. Lucas. London: Methuen and Co. (Cloth, gilt edges, 5s net.)

A new and delightful collection of essays, grave and gay. The first part describes life in the villages of the Marne since the invasion, and is full of touching and beautiful pictures of the suffering, heroism, and patient endurance of the French peasants. The second part is miscellaneous, and contains, among _ other tilings of value, a most sympathetic and appreciative notice,- of "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke," by G. J. Dennis, from which he give.; lengthy quotations, praising "the sound, human character of the booh." Mr Dennis's "mastery of his instrument, great command of cadences, and very attractive use of repetition." In this part of the booh there is also a delightful essay "On Slang" full of good things, others "On the Best Stories," "On Persons that We Envy," "On being Someone Else," and similar subjects. The third part, entitled "Once Upon a Time," is a series of fantasies, most of them Nature-sturlies, all very short and very much to the purpose : some with a moral, others without. Just the things to read out of doors, on a summer holiday, to an appreciative friend, or, if no friends be near, to read and lay aside and ponder over, and, may be. continue the visit for oneself by personifying a mountain lily or a spray of crimson rata. "Brownie." By Agnes Gordon Lennox. London: John Lane, "The Bodlev Head." (3s 6d, 2s 6d.) This clever novel by the author of "A Girl's Marriage" is the story of Brunhilda Courtney, commonly known as "Brownie," the only child of a learned English professor and a high-born Italian lady. Early in the narrative Brownie has a narrow escape from the machinations of an Austrian scoundrel, Rudolf de Moro, and makes the acquaintance of Captain Roger Meade. After her father's death, Brownie being left almost without means and being still persecuted by Moro, marries Meade, more from gratitude than affection. After her marriage her real adventures begin. She goes to India with her husband, and has some happy and peaceful years. Then Moro appears again and is instrumental in bringing about much misery, from which, however, the skill of the author ultimately rescues the heroine, bringing about her lasting happiness.

"Love's Law." Bv Kate Home. London: Stanley Paul and Co. (3a 6d, 2a 6d.) The law of love as expounded by Miss Kate Home is the law of forgiveness unto seventy times seven. The different points are well made and well worked out in Beveral lives, but especially in that of the heroine, Sally Blaise, who does not for a long time understand — That a woman's love is all made up of forgiving, from the beginning to the end of her life. That is why men folk are more to her than women: always big, helpless babies, to bo fooled, nnd petted, and planned for, and, forgiven. You havi started right out to oe one of the wo rut sort of female folk, Sarah —th- woman who can't forgive or Dut her pride in her pocket.

But Sally learns her lesson in time, and all ends happily to the sound of wedding bells.

"Songs of the Sailor Man." By T. B. D. London: Hodder and Stoughtom (Cloth, Is net.) These verses, written by a naval officer, throw much light on the work of the British fleet during the great war, and, in addition, bring home how much the British Islands owe to the great leaders and heroes of the navy in bygone years, showing how the new is grafted on the old Into one ever-increasingly efficient unity of ideals and service.

"The Red Mouse." By William Hamilton Osborne. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Cloth, Is net.) A cheap reprint of a lively and spirited "mystery romance," which will hold the reader's'enthralled attention from the first page to the last.