FATHER CHRISTMAS is already sending out his Cards for the Coming
Festivity, now six weeks ahead. His representatives all "decorated,"
and still ready to receive any amount of "orders," are MARCUS WARD,
the RAPHAEL TUCK family, C. W. FAULKNER, C. DELGADO, and many others,
whose excellent works are known to all, and by none more appreciated
than by the youthful Baronites and Baronitesses.
"BLACKIE AND SON!" says a Junior Baronite; "why, that must he the
publishers of Christy Minstrel works!" but they are soon undeceived.
Such delightful books! their very bindings are suggestive of
cheerfulness, and seem to invite inspection. We will take a peep
inside, like Jack Horner, and pull out the best plummed story.
Three by G. A. HENTY, who knows how and what to write for youths of
adventurous spirit. His three are:--
_Through the Sikh War._ Indian affairs are always of interest to the
young Britisher, "who will," quoth the little Baronite, "_seek_ and
find all he wants in this book."
_St. Bartholomew's Eve_ might be a tale of curiosity, but it is
history, and deals with the valour of an English boy during the
Huguenot Wars. Being a hero, he does not get killed in the massacre,
but lives to fight another day.
_A Jacobite Exile_ is a tale of the Swedes. Hardly necessary, perhaps,
or as SHAKSPEARE puts it, "Swedes to the Swede,--superfluous." To the
English reader, therefore, it is not a superfluity.
Then here is The _Penny Illustrated_. It is called "_Roses_" and
whatever any reader may require, here he will find it "all among the
roses." The rearer and cultivator of these "Roses" is JOHN LATEY,
whose "Rose of Hastings" is among the best of the contributions. "We
can't do better than provide ourselves and our families with this
specimen of a Flowery Annual," quoth,