mmunications, or crossed vast trenches over
bundles of faggots carried upon their backs. Every boy of the right kind
who inherits the proper zeal for mechanisms will certainly find in this
book the most absorbing of yarns. Not that the subject is treated in the
least lightly or frivolously, but, since the barest truth is here
incredible romance, the authors, soberly collecting materials from
despatches, diaries and so on, as well as drawing on their own obvious
first-hand knowledge, have achieved a fairy-tale of mechanics. That the
crews were no less wonderful than their machines we knew before, but the
writers' modest yet illuminating account of the difficulties under which
they worked is none the less welcome.

* * * * *

If you decide to go on _Circuits_ (METHUEN) with Mr. PHILIP CAMBORNE you
will find him an interesting and informing companion. His hero and heroine
are a Wesleyan minister and his wife, so completely out of tune with the
usual heroes of contemporary fiction that they are actually shameless
enough to be in love with one another from the first page to the last.
Though he shows a remarkable insight into the lives of Wesleyan ministers,
Mr. CAMBORNE declines the popular methods of sectarian fiction and refrains
from any attempt to proselytize. Instead we are simply given a clear and
often amusing account of what _Mark Frazer_ had to put up with in his
wanderings from circuit to circuit. Mr. CAMBORNE is modern in confining
himself to the history of a single family, but in outlook he belongs to a
past century. And I mean that for a compliment.

* * * * *

[Illustration: UNRECORDED HISTORICAL SCENE.--ROMULUS HEARS FROM HIS
CONTRACTOR THAT ROME CANNOT BE BUILT IN A DAY.]

* * * * *

Motto for the Wee Frees when attempting to conciliate the Labour Party:
Lib. and let Lab.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol.
158, March 31, 1920, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH ***

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