It is not often that we are called upon to notice a book by an author of the tender age of six, but such is the number of years that have been counted by Myra Bradwell Helmer, who has written a tiny volume of "Short Stories" (Chicago Legal News Co.). The stories are very pretty, and they will very likely appeal to youthful readers more deeply than many attempts made to amuse them by older writers. They were "talked" by the little girl, and written down by her mother just as they came from her lips. They are not wanting in moral and scientific instruction, as the following extracts will show:—
"Ruby was a beauty—small blue eyes and yellow curls down to her waist. She was the piousest lady among the fairies. Ruby's sister was named Tulip. She was not so pretty as Ruby, because her hair was brown and her eyes were black, but still she was pretty. Tulip was next to her sister in goodness. Ruby was never seen to frown, nor Tulip either. When Ruby was dressed in her wedding clothes she looked very sweet. Her eyes were glowing with blueness and were shining brightly.
"When the fairy doctor came, he said one had got scarlet fever, the other diphtheria, and the other typhoid fever. He told the fairy godmother all about microbes and germs, and told her to boil the water. The fairy godmother said she did not Understand; if the germ had the fever, why didn't the fever, which killed little boys and girls, kill the germ? And if the germ didn't have the fever, how could it give the fever; how could a thing give a thing it didn't have? The fairy doctor said: 'Nobody knows but God.' "
