The history and characters of the Tennessee Mountains seem to have become the peculiar property of Miss Murfree, who is never so happy as when in this particular field. In her latest book, which, like “The Story of Old Fort Loudon,” deals with the early settlement of this state, she gives a stirring history of the vicissitudes of the early settlers, and the terrible vengeance of the Cherokees. As the time antedates the Revolution by thirteen years the heroine is a lovely, highborn English girl, while the hero is a sturdy young product of colonial training and education. While it is an engrossing love story, it is also a distinct contribution to American romantic history. OLD CREOLE DAYS. By George W. Cable. New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons. Price, $2.50. Mr. Cable’s delightful book, his first volume, by the way, was published in 1879, and so popular has it proven that it goes through several editions every year. Each issue seems more artistic than the last, but surely the illustrations can never be better than those which Albert Herter has given this Christmas. He has caught the very spirit of the Creoles, their grace, their jauntiness, their naive simplicity. It may not be generally known that Mr. Cable, born of a Puritan mother and a Virginia father, started out on a promising newspaper career in New Orleans, after returning from the Confederate army in 1865; a career which came to grief because he refused to edit the theatrical column, having a deep-rooted prejudice against the stage. He then became a clerk in a cotton firm and his Creole sketches, done at odd times, appeared in _Scribner’s Magazine_, where they speedily won for him the recognition in the world of letters which his later work has so well upheld. THEIR FIRST FORMAL CALL. By Grace MacGowan Cooke. New York: Harper & Bros. Price, $1. The laughable experience of two country lads who go to make their first call on the girls they admire is rendered still more quaintly comical by Peter Newell’s inimitable drawings. One of the boys had prepared for the ordeal by a faithful study of “Hints and Helps to Young Men in Business and Social Relations,” but the principles expounded therein prove very poor working dependences. “When seated,” the “Hints and Helps” advised, “ask the young lady who her favorite composer is. Name yours. Ask her pet poet. Name yours.” The sufferings the boys endured in trying to follow these instructions, the humiliating climax that ended their first attempt to fulfill the social amenities, make a thoroughly enjoyable story. LIFE AND SAYINGS OF SAM JONES. By Mrs. Jones and Reverend Walt Whitcomb. Atlanta: J. L. Nichols & Co. Price, $2.50.