With Eight Illustrations . Price , $ 1.25 . `` Miss Ingelow is , to our mind , the most charming of all living writers for children , and ` Mopsa ' alone ought to give her a kind of pre-emptive right to the love and gratitude of our young folks . It requires genius to conceive a purely imaginary work which must of necessity deal with the supernatural , without running into a mere riot of fantastic absurdity ; but genius Miss Ingelow has , and the story of Jack is as careless and joyous , but as delicate , as a picture of childhood . `` The young people should be grateful to Jean Ingelow and those other noble writers , who , in our day , have taken upon themselves the task of supplying them with literature , if for no other reason , that these writers have saved them from the ineffable didacticism which , till within the last few years , was considered the only food fit for the youthful mind . '' -- Eclectic . Sold everywhere . Mailed , postpaid , by the Publishers . ROBERTS BROTHERS , BOSTON . * * * * * Messrs. Roberts Brothers ' Publications . CASTLE BLAIR : A STORY OF YOUTHFUL DAYS . BY FLORA L. SHAW . 16mo . Cloth . Price $ 1.00 `` There is quite a lovely little book just come out about children , -- ` Castle Blair ! ' ... The book is good , and lovely , and true , having the best description of a noble child in it -LRB- Winnie -RRB- that I ever read ; and nearly the best description of the next best thing , -- a noble dog , '' says John Ruskin , the distinguished art critic . '' ` Castle Blair , ' a story of youthful days , by Flora L. Shaw , is an Irish story . A charming young girl -- half French , half English -- comes from France , at the age of eighteen , to live with her bachelor uncle at Castle Blair , which is in possession of five children of an absent brother of this uncle . The children are in a somewhat wild and undisciplined condition , but they are as interesting children as can be imagined , and some of them winning to an extraordinary degree . They are natural children , in manner and in talk ; but the book differs from some American books about children , in that it is pervaded by an air of refinement and good-breeding .
The story is altogether delightful , quite worthy , from an American point of view , of all Mr. XXXXX says of it ; and if circulation were determined by merit , it would speedily outstrip a good many now popular children 's books which have a vein of commonness , if not of vulgarity . ''
1.00 1.25 16mo BOSTON Mopsa Ruskin Winnie days didacticism good-breeding