The San Francisco call., 1910-11-20
RALPH D. PAlhE

the first evening of his visit one smokes
most mysteriously What time he
has looking for the cause of the
trouble, and what an extraordinary
train of adventures follows his investi
cations
The two nieces of Miss Hollister.
Miss Cecilia, who has Seven" to
handle, and her sister. Hezekiah, who
lives on a neighboring farm with her
father. are both full of interest, charm
and mystery, but Hezekiah is the de-
light of the book. She is a fairy, a
sprite an elf come to life. as full of
mischief as Puck, and not afraid of
anything. She is the most fascinating
of all of Nicholson's heroines.
Perhaps one quotation from the book
will give a sample of its quality.
Miss Octavia has been telling Ames
how she came to buy the house and of
one extraordinary condition of the sale.
IT is that a certain pie vault has been
constructed in the house and is to be
kept constantly filled with pies. Tt
can accommodate several dozen, and
they are given to the people in the
neighborhood every second day. Miss
Octavia shows Ames the pie vault and
tells him about the varieties and their
places on the shelves. She says in
conclusion:
.The soul color of pies varies great
MT. A1lleS- 1t mas always seemed TO
me that apple pie stands for the home
lier virtues Of our civilization; it is
substantial, nutritious and filing The
custard and lemon varieties are femin-
inc and do not, perhaps for that reason,
appeal to me. Cherry pie, at it's best,
is the last and final expression of the
pie genus, and where cooks have been
careful in eliminating the seeds. and
the juice hasn't made sodden dough Of
the crust a cherry pie meets the souls
highest demands. Grape and raisin pie
are on my cooks index eXpurgatorius:
l consider them neither palatable nor
respectable. But rhubarb is the most
odious pie of all, in my judgment 1t
suggests the pharmacopia-onl that
and nothing more. You will pardon me
for mentioning the matter, but one of
my gardeners, a Swiss, crawled in here
two nights ago and stole a rhubarb
pie which I rejoice to say, made him
hideously i'll. The RS you will notice,
are placed near the floor and within
easy reach of any larcenous hand. The
ease of his approach was his undoing.
The pumpkin variety reaches almost
the same lofty heights as the cherry.
When not oveTdosed with spices a
pumpkin pie conveys a sense of the
October landscape that is the despair
of the best painters. In the gooseberry
I find a certain raciness. or if I may
stimulating. Both qualities you will
observe in Hezekiah, If you come to
know her we'll The thought of black
berry or raspberry pie depresses me,
but huckleberry buoys the spirit again
The huckleberry seems to me to voice
a protest and unless managed with the
greatest neatness and circumspection 1t
is bound to stimulate the laundry bust
ness As any one who would eat a
cooked strawberry would steal a sick
babys rattle, I need hardly say that
the strawberry pies, even in their sea-
son, shall have no place on these
shelves"
1t is with such conversations and
whimsical descriptions that the book is
dragging of the story The action pos
itively gallops and the reader can
scarcely contain himself until he has
solved the various mysteries.
The book contains frontispiece in
color by c. Coles Phillips and 20 text
Illustrations by Reginald Birch 1t is
well printed and bound. No one can
afford to miss this entertaining story.
Felix Weill's Historical French
Reader contains so selections for sec
ond year reading, each a complete epi-
sode. They are from Martin, Julian,
Froissart, France, Michelet, De
Barante, Hugo, Mlgnet tenelOn, TAI
Tenant des Reaux, Taine, Hamilton,
Normand. st. Simon, Rousseau, De
Stael. Voltaire, Marmontel, Moreau,
Lamartine. Thiers, Marriott, Merimee,
Sarcey and Lott. The original text has
been preserved, so far as possible, but
the abridgment of the "Chanson de
Roland" and the selection from Frois-
sart has been rewritten in modern
French and the text has been short
ened. (AmericanS book company. New
York. 40 cents.)