attractive pages of the book. As for the stories, here we get diversity
indeed; and not of theme alone. It is, of course, almost impossible for
anything signed by Mr. KIPLING to be wholly commonplace, but I am bound to
admit that there is at least one of the collection (which, pardon me, I do
not mean to name) that makes a notable effort in that direction. Also there
are two of which one can honestly say that no other pen could have written
them with anything like such finished art--_The Village that Voted the
Earth was Flat_, which one might call a fantasia upon Publicity, and (to my
mind the best thing in the volume) _My Son's Wife_, an exquisitely humorous
and cunning study in the Influence of Landed Estate upon a Modern. If this
definition strikes you as obscure, read the story and you will understand.
For the rest, as I said above, all tastes are catered for; so that the
rival schools who admire Mr. KIPLING most as the creator of _Plain Tales_,
or _Stalky_ or _Puck_, will each receive encouragement and support; while,
if there be those who prefer the pot-boiler undisguisable, they too will
not find themselves altogether neglected.

* * * * *

I do wish our publishers would grasp the great truth that praise of their
own wares needs (to say the least of it) most careful handling. What they,
or some anonymous admirer, say on the cover of _The Worn Doorstep_ (HODDER
AND STOUGHTON) is that they should like to shout its merits from the
housetop. Possibly; but let me protest that it is for me, and not for them,
to do the shouting, if any; which said, I will proceed to admit that the
book is one of considerable charm. It is told in the form of letters (never
to be posted, since they are from a young wife to her soldier-husband,
presumed to have been killed before the opening of the book). Miss MARGARET
SHERWOOD thus reverts to a convention more popular some few years ago than
with our present-day romanticists. The matter of her tale shows how the