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THE CHRISTMAS BOX.
This is the happiest _title_ in the whole list of annuals. There
is nothing sentimental or lachrymose in it; but it is warm and
seasonable, and done up in a holly-green binding, it is all over
old Christmas.
The first story in the volume is Old Christmas; one of the gems or
sweets is Garry Owen, or the Snow-Woman, by Miss Edgeworth, for it
abounds with good sentiment, just such as we should wish in the hearts
and mouths of our own children, as a spice for their prattle.
We pass over _L'Egotiste Corrigee_, par Madame de Labourt--pretty
enough--and the Ambitious Primrose, by Miss Dagley. Then a Song, by
Miss Mitford; and a Story of Old Times, by Mrs. Hofland; and the
Tragical History of Major Brown, a capital piece of fun; and Pretty
Bobby, one of Miss Mitford's delightful sketches. The Visit to
the Zoological Gardens is not just what we expected; still it is
attractive. Major Beamish has accommodated military tactics to the
nursery in a pleasant little sketch; and the proverb of Much Coin Much
Care, by Mrs. R.S. Jameson is a little farce for the same stage.
But the Cuts--the pictures--of which it would have been more
_juvenile_ to have spoken first.
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