ka with a double-barrelled flash of
her great eyes;" or, again, "It's all poppycock and bumblepuppy,"
meaning, just, it isn't true.

* * * * *

If you are writing or intending to write a book about boys let me beg
you not to follow the prevailing fashion and call your hero David.
Within the last few weeks I have read DAVID PENSTEPHEN, DAVID BLAISE,
and now it is Miss ELEANOR PORTER'S _Just David_ (CONSTABLE) and I am
beginning to want a rest from the name. _David III._, if he may be
called so, has saved me from utter confusion of mind by being an
American product and having a charm that is peculiarly his own. Cynics
indeed may find his perfection a little cloying, and may say with some
justification that no human child ever radiated so much joy and
happiness. All the same, this simple tale of childhood will appeal
irresistibly to those who do not draw too fine a distinction between
sentiment and sentimentality. On the whole Miss PORTER, although
hovering near the border, does not pass into the swamps of sloppiness,
and as an antidote to War fiction I can recommend _Just David_ without
any further qualification.

* * * * *

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS will, alas, entertain us no more with his
easy-flowing pen. These short stories, _Somewhere in France_
(DUCKWORTH), must be his farewell to us. And it is good to feel that his
sympathies are so whole-heartedly on the right side. The first of the
stories (the only one that has anything to do with the War) is a
spirited yarn of the turning of the tables on a German secret service
agent, with plenty of atmosphere and hurrying action. The rest are light
studies of American life, of which I chiefly commend an extravaganza set
in Hayti with a resourceful Yankee electrician, as hero, in conflict
with the President in the matter of overdue wages; and the final item of
a tussle between a stern and upright District Attorney and the might of
Tammany, in which the author seems to have a rather whimsical mistrust
of both sides. I always like to think of Tammany when our croakers are
holding up everything in this poor little island to obloquy.

* * * * *

The God in the Car.

"Rumania asked permission for the passage through Bulgaria of
several wagons of grain bought from Greece. Bulgaria agreed on
condition that Rumania should release over 200 wagons of
Bulgarian gods detained