Ann’s First Flutter (ALLEN AND UNWIN) will not arouse any commotion in the dovecotes of the intellectually elect, but it provides an amusing entertainment for those who can appreciate broad and emphatic humour.  Mr. R.A.  HAMBLIN has succeeded in what he set out to do, and my only quarrel with him is that I believe him to have a subtler sense of humour than he reveals here. Ann was a grocer’s daughter, and after her attempt to flutter for herself had failed she married Tom Bampfield, a grocer’s son. Tom had literary ambitions, and was the author of a novel which his father thought pernicious enough to destroy his custom.  Strange however to relate, the novel failed to destroy anything except the author’s future as a novelist, and when Tom did succeed in making some pen-money it was by means of a series of funny articles in The Dry Goods Gazette—­articles so violently humorous that the author’s father thoroughly appreciated them.  Mr. HAMBLIN’S fun, let me add, is never ill-natured.  Even bilious grocers will not resent his jovial invasion of their kingdom.

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[Illustration:  THE PRUDENT LOVER.]

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    “City gunsmiths have been busy these days furbishing up sportsmen’s
    rifles for the ‘12th.’”—­Scotch Paper.

Personally we use a machine-gun.