The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-27 00:00:00

74,5`
-44
(Ott _ Str

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dec. 26.

'fhe Queen, accompanied by Princess Christian,
Princess Louise, and Princess Beatrice, drove out
yesterday afternoon, attended by the equerry in
waiting upon horseback ; and her Majesty walked
in the grounds this morning, accompanied by
Princess Beatrice.

Prince and Princess Christian, Princess Louise,
and Prince Arthur rode, and Prince Leopold walked
out.

The Prince of Leiningen lefc ()Acme to-lay.

M. F. Eloin had the-honour of dining with the
Queen and royal family yesterday, and left this
morning.

LITERATURE.

A Hero's Work. By MrT Duffus Hardy, author
of "A Casual Acquaintance." 3 vols. Hurst

and Blackett.

Since the publication of her former work, "
Casual Acquaintance," Mrs. Duffus Hardy has
made great progress in the art of story-telling. " A
Hero's Work" is pleasantly written, and the story
is for the most part full of interest. We can-
not say that wo admire the introduction
of such unnatural characters as Madame
Fontaine and her daughters. Madame Fon-
taine is singularly repulsive. The main inci-
dent of the story also, the unheroic " work" of the
" hero," is not an agreeable episode. The moral
lesson might have been enforced with equal effect
without the introduction of an incident so re-
volting in its details as the story of the unfor-
tunate Adrienne. The sole object of this event
as it is described is of course to reveal
the utter selfishness of the " hero," as he has not
even the excuse of passion to account for his
treacherous conduct. The heroes of the Crimea
have no cause to be complimented by the com-
panionship of Captain Archibald Dundas ! Not-
withstanding these grave errors which mar the
excellence of the work, there are agreeable cha-
racters and pleasantly-written chapters in Mrs.
Duff us Hardy's new work.

Stung to the Quick; a North Country Story. BY
Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks. 3 vols. C. W. Wood.

Another sensational story I 'We were beginning
to congratulate ourselves upon a little respite, but
again we find ourselves transported from the terra
firma of every-day life to that imaginary and
impossible region familiar to the writers and
also (alas !) to the readers of sensational litera-
ture. In no region but that do we hear
of babies picked up in the snow like Rhoda
Wearbank, to devote their lives to the injury of
their benefactors. No where else do we read of
young wife locked up in a secret chamber in her
own house by a favourite friend, while her hus-
band is 'persuaded that she has eloped in the dis-
guise of a sailor boy with a treacherous sea cap-
tain ! Those who delight iu such marvels will find
a rich treat in the record of Eva's imprisonment in
a padded room, which permits no outcry to escape,
with a trap-door stealthily lifted up in the
night for the kind " friend" to introduce
food, which food has to be surreptitiously
purloined at the expense of the character of dog
and cat. Nor is the escape of Eva less amazing
than the record of her imprisonment. Even more
astounding is Rhoda's revenge upon Lucy Askew,
who deserts her home and risks her reputation by
elopeing with a foreign music-master, who proves to
be no other than Rhoda in disguise ! An agreeable
recollection of Mrs. Banks's former work, 46 God's
Providence House," makes us regret to find her pen
depicting a Rhoda Wearbank.

A very Simple Story; Being a Chronicle of the
Thoughts and Feelings of a Child. By Florence
Montgomery. Illustrated by the Marchioness of

Queensberry and M. R. Richard Bentley.
This is, indeed, a very simple, but exquisitely
pathetic little story, most tenderly told. The illus-
trations are singularly graceful, and two of these,
which coutain all the pathos of the tale,
will appeal to the heart of every beholder. 11l
one we see a picture of little Maye, the
tiny heroine of the story, a darling little child of
five years old, standing barefoot in her little night-
dress, knocking at the closed door of her mother's
chamber. " Mother !" wails the little voice/
4' mother ! it is Maye, only Maye, oh, dear
Mother ! let me in !" But no sound comes from the
room, no voice replies; all is silence and darkness•
The door is locked, but the anxious little supplicant
will not be denied, and creeps round by the open
dressing-room, and in the next picture we see the little
loving child on the bed with clinging arms clasped
round the dead mother's neck. These two pictures/
as we have said, tell the whole story—a very
touching little tale it is, and one which will bring
tears to the eyes and tender feelings to the heart of
many a reader. The manner in which the little
history has been narrated by Florence Mont-
gomery is just as it should be. It is written with
the utmost shnplicity, which imparts to it an inex-
pressible charm, and is suffused throughout with an
ineffable tenderness.

-The Story of Papa's Wise Dogs. Told and IllaB-

trated by Himself. Routledge and Sons.
Papa and his wise dogs will be welcome at many
a Christmas fireside. The anecdotes recorded are
founded on fact, and Papa relates them in the most
natural and delightful manner. The " two dear
little girls" to whom the book is dedicated will find
many companions in their " appreciation and love
of dog-nature," as exemplified in the histories of
Jock and Fan, and Bar and Mr. Nic.

Peter Parley's Annual. Darton and Co.
Peter Parley's Annual for 1868" is of more 00
ordinary excellence. Many of the pictures are
oloured, and some are very spirited, as for examPlef
the group of shipwrecked boys waving a signal tn
distress.

Lady Herbert a'. Lea, since her return from the
West Indies, has been staying with her family at Wilt°
House, near Salisbury.
SMALL BIRDS IN WINTER.—We see the footpriuta
of the little robin in the snow, and where it lies deep Ole
long-eared hare betrays her hiding place by the deep ill-
dentments she makes in:the feathery flakes. The half'
starved fieldfares huddle together in the naked hedges for
warmth ; while the owl, rolling himself up like a ball ill
his feathers, creeps as far as he can into the old hollovi
tree to get out of the cold. That lively little fellowtil°
water-wagtail—the smallest of our birds that walk-411a0
now be seen pecking about the spots of ground that an;
unfrozen in moist places, though what he finds to feet'
upon there, unless it be loosened bits of grit and gilt;
Many a shy
vel, it is difficult to ascertain. bird, bg-
seldom seen at any other season, now draws --nes4
to our habitations in search of food ; and sometirael
when entering an outhouse, we are startled by the rush
of wings, as the pretty intruder escapes by the oPe"
doorway we are entering. We often wonder how, during
a long and severe frost, the birds contrive to live. °tl'fit
many perish through cold and want of food is well kuovr-a
through the number that are picked up dead °is
frozen, though a great number are eaten by the suilJni,
that prey upon everything they can find. Many PieltAt;..
insects in a dormant state from out the stems °f t-
cayed trees, old walls, and the thatched roofs of
r °I.;
tapes and outhouses, and they also forage among Oo 0;
r
bushes, the underneath portions of which, being dead, f b
a warm shelter for such insects as the gnats, which LOY :t
seen out in every gleam of sunshine. Wood pigeo°6 the
the eyeshoots out of the tops of turnips and devour bor
tenderest portion of winter greens. Larks and t
birds find a living in the autumn-sown corn-fields, tithe
make sad havoc among the seed. Other birds tear to
thatch off corn-stacks, and eat until they are bard
less
to fly. One thing we must consider, birds requiredo at
food during their short dark days than they
lore
any other season of the year, as they are asidePnitoer,
thin double the time they pass in slumber in suA, on
nor when awake do they exert themselves to tiog
the wing as during the long days. It is an interes iiig
fact, as showing the care of the great Creator for
creatures, that the berries of the mistletoe only rip oia
spring, when hips and haws and the berries of il°11):004
ivy have disappeared. Thus in a prolonged winte.rootoo,
birds aro kept from starving by means of the 111brual
which they do not feed on till about the end of BoniotA;
or early in March. The Englidlovoniales
1 Magazine.