eaf of tales. But it is _Mr. Jones_ who will
give them their money's worth.

* * * * *

I was, I confess, a little sceptical--you know how it is--when I read what
Messrs. HODDER AND STOUGHTON'S official reviewer said of Mr. HAL. G.
EVARTS' _The Cross-Pull_: "The best dog story since The Call of the Wild,"
etc., etc. Well, I certainly haven't seen a better. Mr. EVARTS' hero,
_Flash_, is a noble beast of mixed strain--grey wolf, coyote, dog. The
Cross-Pull is the conflict between the dog and the wolf, between loyalty to
his master and mistress whom he brings together and serves, and the wolf
whose proper business is to be biting elks in the neck. Happier than most
tamed brutes he is involved as chief actor in a round up of some desperate
outlaws, among whom is his chief enemy, and he is fortunate enough to serve
the state while pursuing to a successful end his bitter private quarrel.
Brute _Brent_ gets and deserves the kind of bite which was planned by a
far-seeing providence for the elk.... You can tell when an author really
loves and knows animals or is merely "putting it on." Mr. EVARTS
understands, sentimentalises less than most interpreters; seems to know a
good deal. The story loses no interest from being set in the American
hinterland of a few decades ago. All real animal lovers should get this
book--they should really.

* * * * *

If it be true art, as I rather think someone has said it is, to state what
is obvious in regard to a subject while creating by the manner of the
statement an impression of its subtler features, then Mr. PERCY BROWN, in
writing _Germany in Dissolution_ (MELROSE), has proved himself a true
artist. For in Germany about the time of the Armistice and during the
Spartacist rising certain things happened which got themselves safely into
the newspapers, and these he sets forth, mostly in headline form. Beyond
this Germany was a seething muddle of contradictions and cross-purposes,
which, it is hardly unfair to say, are capably reflected in his pages. Mr.
BROWN is a journalist of the school that does not stick at a trifle, a
German prison, for instance, when his dear public wants news. His crowning
achievement was to persuade Dr. SOLF, when Foreign Minister, to send
through the official wireless an account of an interview with himself,
which would, as he (SOLF) fondly hoped, help to bamboozle British public
opinion. When the article