Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/8



A collection of fugitive tales and sketches which we should have been sorry to lose. Miss Alcott's boys and girls are always delightful in her hands. She throws a loving glamour over them; and she loves them herself so heartily that it is not possible for the reader to do otherwise. We have found the book very pleasant to read.

The large and increasing circle of juveniles who sit enchanted year in and out round the knees of Miss Alcott will hail with delight the publication of "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag." The most taking of these taking tales is, to our fancy, "My Boys;" but all possess the quality which made "Little Women" so widely popular, and the book will be welcomed and read from Maine to Florida.

These little stories are in every way worthy of the author of "Little Women." They will be read with the sincerest pleasure by thousands of children, and in that pleasure there will not be a single forbidden ingredient. "My Boys," which, opening upon by chance, we read through at a sitting, is charming. Ladislas, the noble, sweet-tempered Pole, is the original of Laurie, ever to be remembered by all "Aunt Jo's" readers.

Dear Aunt Jo! You are embalmed in the thoughts and loves of thousands of little men and little women. Your scrap-bag is rich in its stores of good things. Pray do not close and put it away quite yet.

This is Louisa Alcott's Christmas tribute to the young people, and it is, like herself; good. In making selections, "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" must not be forgotten. There will be a vacant place where this little volume is not.

ROBERTS BROTHERS,