JOHN FOSTER'S story into a most inartistic anti-climax over such
a subtlety. All the same a rattling good tale, full of hard knocks as
well as bright eyes, and with more than a smack of STEVENSON.
* * * * *
I fancy that I ought perhaps already to know _The Wood-Carver of
'Lympus_ (MELROSE), which, hailing originally from America, seems to
have made many friends over here before reaching me in its present
form. I am glad, more especially at the present season, to extend
a grateful welcome to so kindly and charming a story. Miss MARY E.
WALLER has written a singularly refreshing and happy book, full of
passages that reveal a great sympathy for country life and the hearts
of simple people. _Hugh Armstrong_, the central figure, is a youth in
a New England mountain farm, condemned to perpetual inactivity through
an accident. At the beginning of the story we see him, in the depths
of misery, visited by a casual passenger from the stage coach, whose
attention has been caught by his story as related by the driver.
Thenceforward things mend for _Armstrong_. The stranger interests him
in wood-carving; orders pour in, which help to bring comfort to the
farm; books and letters arrive from unknown city dwellers. Thus the
tale is a record of increasing happiness, but kept (an important
thing) from cloying by the tragedy upon which it is built. If you
will not be put off by American dialect or by the rather startling
discovery that one of the kindliest characters is named _Franz_, you
will, I believe, find a brief stay upon '_Lympus_ most beneficial to
your spirits.
Pages:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52