Page:Complete Works of Lewis Carroll.djvu/1305



writer of the Introduction to a book, who is not himself the author of the book, enjoys one singular privilege—he can discuss its merits with a freedom that very few authors would venture to use: since, however sweet the "blowing one's own trumpet" may sound to the enraptured trumpeter, it is apt to pall on other ears. Let me, then, avail myself of this privilege by saying that I believe Mrs. Egerton Allen has a very special talent for writing books for very young children. Her dialogues have all the vividness of a photograph; and I feel sure that all real children—children who have not been spoiled by too much notice, and thus taught to give themselves the airs of little men and women—will like to read the story of tiny "Joey," and will enjoy the clever and sympathetic sketches with which Mrs. Shute has adorned it. It is, I think, a real loss to the thousands of child-readers, for whom so many charming books have been written, that Mrs. Allen's first little book—"Little Humphrey's Adventure"—has been allowed by the Publishers, who hold the copyright of it, to go out of print. It is a thorough child's book, and I trust the S.P.C.K. may ere long see their way to issuing another edition of it.