Chapter VII (4)

A thoroughly wholesome story is _A Woodland Wooing_, by Eleanor Putnam (the late Mrs. Arlo Bates). It is as sweet as a meadow of clover and as bright as a crisp October morning. Its simplest events are made fascinating by their rare naturalness. The motherless children of a country doctor figure prominently in the tale, and they devise all sorts of original modes of amusing themselves, of course omitting whatever is incompatible with self-respect or unapproved by conscience. Boys and girls are for the most part the story's heroes and heroines, and when they find themselves quite unexpectedly grown into men and women and realize all that maturity means, their natures are strong and unhurt by the evils of self-consciousness or of unwholesome speculations regarding the significance of this life or the next. They are children of fine, vigorous intellectual fibre and noble impulses that lead them toward worthiness, happiness, and usefulness, and the story of their progress toward higher things is charmingly told.--_The Delineator._

Like a cool breeze on a sultry day comes this little book, _A Woodland Wooing_, by Eleanor Putnam, fresh and sparkling, with almost child-like fun, and not even the shadow of a moral spectre to be found stalking anywhere between its dainty covers.... The Yankee country-folks all around are photographed very accurately to our mind's eye, and it is difficult to say whether they are more amusing than the widely-travelled and elegantly-Bohemian family of Sparhawks, whose advent in the village makes such a sensation. The infant Sparhawks are especially droll, and remind one strongly of those famous personages, "Toddy and Budge." In fact it is just the sort of book to read aloud, so as to have some one to laugh with over its joyous humor.--_Home Journal._

One of the breeziest, brightest books of the year. It is not only charmingly original, but thoroughly amusing. Its characters are drawn with all the skill of the literary artist, and stand out in the mind of the reader like beautiful pictures upon the canvas. The reading will make old gray heads feel again young. It will revive the visions of youth, with spring flowers, when all the world stretched away in brightness. The story is a summer camping-out, told in alternate chapters by a brother and sister, in which all sorts of people are introduced to the reader in a most delightful and amusing way. It matters not that it contains much nonsense; life needs a good deal of such to spice it up. The woodland wooing, it may be remarked, is carried on under many and trying circumstances. But it all ends well. It is indeed a bright, breezy, pleasing book, and tears will only come in the remembrance that the hand that penned the lines has ceased forever from such pleasing earthly tasks.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._

_Sold everywhere. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of the price, by the Publishers_,

ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.

PRINCE VANCE.

=A Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box.= By ELEANOR PUTNAM and ARLO BATES. Illustrated by Frank Myrick.

_"Prince Vance" is an Entertaining Fairy Story of the wildest and most fantastic adventures and of amusing and original impossibilities, which, however, carry with them a stern puritan moral. This allegiance of unfettered imagination and straightforward, wholesome, moral teaching is unusual, and gives the little book a special value._

Small 4to. Cloth gilt. Price, $1.50.

ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.

Transcriber's Note

For this txt-version italics were surrounded with _underscores_, bold with =signs=, and small capitals changed to all capitals.

In the Table of Contents "283" was changed to "285" (Interlude Eighth: A CUBAN MORNING 285). Also the following corrections were made, on page

171 "forgotton" changed to "forgotten" (he had forgotten the pain
she might endure)
174 "Dr" changed to "Dr." (while Dr. Lommel, who had charge of the
ward)
240 "Gran'sir" changed to "Gran'sir'" (Gran'sir' Welch's red
cottage)
269 "slighest" changed to "slightest" (I had not the slightest
difficulty)
273 "anoyance" changed to "annoyance" (mingling of philosophy and
annoyance)
279 "persausions" changed to "persuasions" (but my persuasions,
seconded by those of)
313 "accomodations" changed to "accommodations" (furnished
accommodations to a boarder).

Otherwise the original was preserved, including archaic and inconsistent spelling and hyphenation.