The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-19


 Herrick in 'Together"-none with the 1 possible exception of the "Decameron, before referred to. And the "Decame- ron' is not what one would call polite reading-not certainly handed around promiscuously. This department saw a book the other day said to have been
 written by very prominent humorist we all know and love, for his bosom friend, MT. John Hay before the lat ters death. It. the small pamphlet, was
 not written for publication-it couldn't well be published or sent through the
 mails and keep the author out of jail but some parts of Together are not strikingly different from portions of the little book referred to- At any rate Together" will be mighty popular
 book this summer see If it doesn't? You'll hear people saying as one per son said the other day about Victoria
 Cross books, q read it for its literary style as if some reason or apology
 had to be given.
 "rhe Enchanted Castle" by E. Nesbit. (Harper & Bros)
 "The Enchanted Castle" written pri- marily for the young, Is really interest
 ing for the older readers as well. It is decidedly above the general run of juve-
 nile stories and should prove of great interest to the children for whom it was
 written as well as to the older people,
 for its quaint fanciful and delicate humor.
 Four very bright, attractive English children come into possession of an en- chanted ring, and then one after another pass through the most extraordinary ad- ventures with this magic ring. The ring first worn by the little girl of the party
 made her invisible. She walked about
 with the three other children and talked
 
 she was accustomed to do before she
 put the ring on her finger When she ate her supper it was rather disturbing to see the bread and butter waving about in the air and bite after bite disappear ing from it apparently by no human agency and the spoon rising with baked apple in 1t and returning to the plate empty Even the tip of the spoon dis appeared as long as it was in Mabeps unseen mouth so that at times it looked as if the spoon had been bitten off. And when bedtime came the invisible Mable rather startled Katherine, the little girl who shared her couch. Katherine thought it extremely odd to see clothes falling out of nothing to the floor, becoming vis-
 ible as they were detached from the wearer A sleeve of pinky gown showed,
 then another and finally the whole gown lay in the floor in a glistenng ring as the
 unseen Mabel stepped out of it. The night gown lifted from the bed disap- peared a bit at the time the invisible
 one drew it over her head Little Mabel continued invisible until well into the afternoon of the next day and then one
 of the boys had his turn with the ring and distinguished himself by bit of de- tective work, 1t being his privilege to
 watch brace of burglars while they robbed the enchanted castle and to follow
 them down to the spot near the river
 where they buried their loot. Of course the police discovered the stolen goods, but they did not get the burglars because the little detective took pity on them and
 warned them to keep away from the buried treasure.
 The book is unusually entertaining for
 both the young and the old particularly of course for the children.
 "'The Gray Knight" by Mrs. Henry de la Pastyre. (E. P. Dutton & Co) The story of 'The Gray Knight" deals with young widow who at 35 years of age is released by the death of her hus- hand from bondage of 15 years duration. The husband had been before she married him a hopeless invalid and the wife's un- professional training in the art of nursing had enabled her to plan her future as a sick nurse, or trained nurse,' as we speak of 1t now. The widow was beautiful, of course she had a kind, languid nature, with opulence of sympathy and defective courage. Sir Harry, the invalid husband, was a commonplace person with the typi- cal virtues and vices of the usual English gentleman in books. In his relations with Louise, in whom he thought he had found all the virtues of womankind, he betrays lis least disagreeable characteristics and the wife played the part of the put-upon Dartyr-which will not go down very well these days as long as matrimony Is not compulsory There Is an English sister | in-law with her devotion to chops and ale. to plush furniture and plain speaking, that hurts the nearer and she makes d more or less striking contrast with Louise. 1 There are lovers who interfere more or less with Louise's even tenor and, of course, the story deals with Louises de cision as to these lovers after she be- comes a widow.
 The book is unusually interesting in it's
 details of English life in the country, with its descriptions of flowers, trees, people and so on
 Mrs. de la Pastyre has a wide clientage. "The Lonely Lady of Grosvenor Square," Deborah of Todds," published in this country, have been widely read, so will "The Gray Knight be, for it is very pleasing book.
 "The Round Up," by Murray Miller. G w. Dillingham; Co.)
 "'The Round Up'' is a noveization from the play called by the same name which has been running and meeting with great success on the metropolitan stage MT. Maclyn Bukley, he of the County Chair man. fame, takes the part of "Slifn
 Hoover, the fat sheriff in the play who insists that Nobody loves fat man."
 The story is laid in Arizona around about little town, the county seat of Final couhty-Florence, Ariz. Jack Lana lntrad a1 him. but when Jack goes off to ''prospect' in Sonora, Mexico, where the Apaches sre, Miss Allen finds out that she didn't love poor Jack at all she had only en- eaged herself to marry him to be pleas ant so to speak. But as Jack is down there where the Indians get on rampages occasionally there are hopes for Miss Allen after all. And so it occurred, for Lanes death was reported and his rival the only person who knew that Lane wasn't dead, makes up for lost time and arranges to marry Mss Allen when, just
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