or a truly remarkable and admirable characteristic. They
would honestly rather be at work than just playing round. All the
same, no one guessed before the War what they, and many other kinds of
dogs, were able and willing to do for their country in emergency on
guard and sentry duty, and, most of all, as battle-field messengers.
Moreover it took the genius of the man who of all the world knows
most of their mind to discover it. His book, _British War Dogs_
(SKEFFINGTON), is neither very brilliantly written nor particularly
well arranged (it contains quite a lot of repetitions and a system of
punctuation all its own), but it is of more than average interest.
The author details the training of war-dogs--literally "all done by
kindness"--and records many thrilling exploits and heroisms of his
friends. Further, he states at some length some rather attractive
views on dog metaphysics, of which one need say no more than that, if
you wish to believe that your four-footed pal has a soul to be saved
as well as a body to be patted, here is high authority to support
you. I think what one misses all through these pages is the dog's
own story. Without it one never seems to get quite to grips with the
subject. What were _Major's_ thoughts and feelings, for instance, when
carrying a message twelve miles in an hour over all obstacles, dodging
the shells as he ran? Not even Colonel RICHARDSON can find a way to
get a personal interview out of him.

* * * * *

All the Scandinavian countries have in the last twenty-five years
produced novel-writers of power and distinction, but with the single
exception of the Swedish authoress, SELMA LAGERLOeF, whose great novel,
_Gosta Berling_, was awarded the Nobel Prize, and the Norwegian, KNUT
HAMSUN, whose extremely unpleasant book, _Hunger_, was published in
this country a score of years ago, few if any of them have been made
accessible to the average English reader. Now the Gyldendal Publishing
Company of Copenhagen has undertaken the neglected task of producing
English translations of the best Scandinavian fiction, the latest
of which is _Guest the One-Eyed_, by the Icelandic novelist, GUNNAR
GUNNARSSON. It is not a particularly powerful narrative, and is
marked by the characteristic inconsequence that tends to convert the
Scandinavian novel into a melange of family biographies; yet the
author has been successful in weaving into his chapters some of the
beauty and