e willingly than either alone. But if my
author, holding out the spoonful, protests that the jam isn't jam at all
but part of the dose, then my mouth does not open with quite its usual
happy confidence. Miss W.M. LETTS has said something of the sort about her
great little book, _Corporal's Corner_ (WELLS, GARDNER, DARTON), and I wish
she hadn't. It is cast in the form of letters written by a soldier in
hospital to a nurse who has been good to him and whose lover has been
killed at the Front. Miss Letts introduces it with a foreword which conveys
the impression that a real _Corporal Jack_ wrote these letters to a real
nurse; but the letters themselves convince--or very nearly convince--me
that the foreword itself is a mere device of authorship, and one which
defeats its own intention of adding weight to the wise and tender and often
humorous things the writer has to say. From his own death-bed _Corporal
Jack_, together with his own love-story and that of his chum _Mac_, writes
what he can of comfort to his friend, and whether his hand or Miss LETTS'S
held the pen the book is the work of someone who knows all about sorrow,
and only the initiated--who must be many for a decade to come--will know
quite how well it is done.

* * * * *

Of the late Mr. NOEL ROSS, who, to the infinite loss of British journalism,
died at the early age of twenty-seven, Mr. Punch cannot trust himself to
speak with the cold detachment of the critic. He saw life with the clear
eye of happy youth and set it down with the easy pen of a ready writer.
Coming from New Zealand, through the War, to England, his natural talents
were at once recognised, and he won a position for himself on the staff of
_The Times_. In the leisure moments spared from the service of the Old Lady
of Printing House Square, he would crack a jest, now and then, with the Old
Sage of Bouverie Street. Mr. EDWIN ARNOLD now publishes a collection of his
writings under the title, _Noel Ross and His Work_, and Mr. Punch confines
himself to commending the volume to his readers.

* * * * *

[Illustration: SOUVENIR-HUNTERS OF THE PAST.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S APPLE.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol.
158, March 3rd, 1920, by Various

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

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