"With delight," writes a young Baronite, "the ordinary schoolboy turns from even Old ÆSOP'S words of wisdom to the ever-blissful fascinations of cowboys, Red Indians, and all the untrammelled pleasures of ranch life which are to be met with in following _The Great Cattle Trail_, by EDWARD S. ELLIS (CASSELL & CO.); and certainly life appears very, so very interesting, when you can be a hero with Buffalo Bill effect." _Five Stars in a Little Pool_, by EDITH CARRINGTON (CASSELL & CO.), suggests lives and billiards, but that is the wrong cue to give, except that it is five little stories in black on white, "red" is added when you've finished the book. CASSELL & CO. evidently, or, says a Baronite fresh from school, "_Ovid_ently" put a new construction on "_Ars est celare Artem_," for in their _Magazine of Art_ it is clearly shown not only what Art does but how it does it. The etchings and photogravures are charming. There is a capital article on stage costumes, and among them is found the original idea out of which the fashionable Serpentine dance was twirlingly evolved. Most little people will be much amused by the waggish tale of _Toby_, by ASCOTT R. HOPE. He is not of course _Mr. Punch's_ "Toby," _cela va sans dire_. There cannot be two Tobies. It is "Toby or not Toby," and there is no "question" about it. This Toby, to whom _the_ Toby never stood godfather, gives us the benefit of his amusing opinions. He is brought out by INNES (& CO.), and is one of the daintiest dogs in the Dainty Book Series. So much for _Toby_. Any who read the first series of _Eighteenth Century Vignettes_, by AUSTIN DOBSON, will eagerly welcome a second series issued by the same publishers, Messrs. CHATTO AND WINDUS. Of all writers at work to-day, Mr. AUSTIN DOBSON is most profoundly steeped in the literary essence of the Eighteenth Century, and is most successful in reproducing its flavour. In writing about SWIFT, RICHARDSON, Dr. JOHNSON, or the topography of HUMPHREY CLINKER (a learned, yet most mellow disquisition), he does not condescend to the easily-acquired trick of introducing archaic words, or inverting sections of phrases with which we are familiar in the works of some other artists on the same broad pavement. Yet, withal, there is in the literary style of these pleasant chats round about the old writers, booksellers and bookbuyers, a certain distinct Eighteenth Century flavour. So intimate is Mr. DOBSON with the ways, the personal appearance, the dress, the daily environment, and the little gestures of the more or less mighty dead, that he is able to recall them to startlingly vivid life. His picture of SWIFT writing to STELLA from his bed in the back room of a first floor in Bury Street, St. James's, is a masterpiece of live portraiture. THE BARON DE BOOK-WORMS. * * * * * [Illustration: A SNUB.