Gift

THE STEAMER BOOK--Compiled by Edwin Valentine Mitchell--Dodd, Mead ($2.50). A snack of Stevenson, a morsel of Melville, a tidbit of Dibdin, a fact or two about navigation and (for convalescence) one or two very short stories by Hawthorne, Daudet and compeers. In meagre fashion and with no lavish excess of ingenuity in arrangement, all tastes are catered to. There is a scientifico-detective story. There are lines from Lord Tennyson.

The book will solve the steamer-gift problem of unresourceful people but its intrinsic value recommends it as a tip for the steward. The selections of verse present strongest claim for reprieve. Included is G. K. Chesterton's Wine and Water:

Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale,

He ate his egg with a ladle in an egg cup big as a pail,

And the soup he took was Elephant Soup, and the fish he took was Whale. . . .