SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 40, 10 November 1917, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

"Captain Cub." for many years past about Christmas time Miss 'Ethel Turner (Mrs. Curlowis) has given tho public n delightful story about, the young folk, and the list, which began' with the over-popular "Seven Little Australians," must now bn a very long ono. Thie year's story, "Captain

Cub" (Ward, Lock and Co.), is in a wny a sequel to "The Cub," published about twelve _ months ago, but it can bo read quito independently of its predecessor. "Tho Cub" is now at tho front, fighting gallantly for Australia and tho Kmpire, whilst in sunny Sydney tho hoart of his faithful little ' lov'p, Brigid, is torn by conflicting emotions of pride and nn'xicty, fls accounts come to hand of tho prowess of the heroes, alternating, as theeo 6ouletirring descriptions of tho fighting do, with "those awful casualty lists." Tho story is mainly concerned -with the experiences of an Australian family in wartime, and Mrs. Ciirlewis has never been more successful in depicting , the small joys and worries of hor always welldrawn characters. Tho pceno is at. first laid in Sydnoy, but later on changes to an irrigation station up-country. Brigid Lindsay is a.very charming heroine, and her relations and friends, including the quaint little Belgian orphan, .Tosette. whose acquaintance we. first made in "The Cub," include eome very interesting peoplß. A pleasant, wholesome story, which duly ends, as the practised novel-reader quite expects—and wishesit to do, with the happy reunion of the pair of yonng lovers. As a Christmas Rift-book, "Captain Cub" should be greatly appreciated by. a " classes of readors. "Patricia-Pat." Miss Isabel Maud Poacocke, the Auckland writer, who made such a promising debut with. "Mv Friend Phil," nnd whose last years book, "Dick, KnightErrant," also achieved widespread popularity, has now followed up hor earlier successes with a very delightful story, "Patricia-Pat" (Ward, Lock and Co.), the leading figure in which is a, little girl of six or seven years of age, who resides with her great-aunt in a pretty homo overlooking the Waitemata. Her mother is dead, her father, an aviator, has been away in England and elsewhere for somo yeaTs. Her father had been greatly attached to his wife's cousin, Althea, but a misunderstanding had arisen, and he had married the gentle Mnrgnret Rutherford. After her death ho had strayed away to the. Old World, ignorant of th 4 fact that Althea had never ceased to love him. During his absence sho becomes a great frioud of another man, and when her old love returns ho finds that pity for this man, Geoffrey Scton, a semi-invalid and literary recluse, has induced her to become engaged to him. In the disentanglement of a much-in-volved situation little Pat, tho cheeriest, jolliest, and most lovnble of youngstors, plays a very important part, the result being that the lady she has Ion? adored as her "aunt" becomes her second mother. Apart from her charming pictures of child lifo Miss Peaoocke gives her iidmirers an exceedingly pretty lovo story. The crisp freshness of the dialogue, the many little amusing character sketches, and the agreeable pictures of New Zealand life, both in city and country, should all combine to make Miss Peacocke's latest story as widely popular as ita two predecessors.