The facsimile of DICKENS’s MS. of the Christmas Carol, published by Messrs. ELLIOTT STOCK, is a happy thought for the coming Christmas, and that Christmas is coming is a matter about which publishers within the next six weeks will not allow anyone to entertain the shadow or the ghost of a doubt.  What a good subject for a Christmas story, The Ghost of a Doubt; or, The Shadow of a Reason!  “Methinks,” quoth the Baron, “it would be as well to register these two titles and couple of subjects before anyone seizes them as his own.”  Most interesting is this facsimile MS., showing how DICKENS wrote it, corrected it, and polished it up.  Though, that this was the only MS. of this work, the Baron doubts.  It may have been the only complete MS., but where are all the notes, rough or smooth, of the inspirations as they occurred?  Those, the germs of this story or of any story, would be the most interesting of all; that is, to the confraternity of Authors.  There is a pleasant preface, lively, of course, it should be, as coming from a Kitten who might have given us a catty-logue of the works of DICKENS in his possession.

“Thank you, Mr. B.L.  FARJEON,” says the Baron, “for a clever little novel called A Very Young Couple.”  Perhaps it might have been a trifle shorter than it is with advantage; and, if it had been published in that still more pocketable form which has made the Routledgean series of portable-readables so popular with the Baron, and those who are guided by his advice, the book would be still better.  As it is, it is clever, because the astute novel-reader at once discards the real and only solution of the mystery as far too commonplace, and this solution is the one which Mr. FARJEON has adopted.  It is the expected-unexpected that happens in this case, and the astute reader is particularly pleased with himself, because he finishes by saying, “I knew how it would be, all along.”

BARON DE BOOK-WORMS.

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MR. PUNCH’S DICTIONARY OF PHRASES.

DURING A VISIT.

“Pray don’t move;” i.e., “He will be a brute if he doesn’t.”

“I hope I am not disturbing you;” i.e., “I don’t care the least if I am.”

“What a delightful volume of poems your last is!” i.e., “Haven’t read one of them; but he won’t find it out.”

“So much in your new book that is interesting about those dear Japanese;” i.e., “Glad I happened to glance at that page.”

“Do tell me when you next lecture.  Wouldn’t miss it for worlds!” i.e., “Wild horses would not drag me there.”

“So sorry you are going.  Mind you come and stay with us again very soon;” i.e., “Unless she comes without an invitation, she is not likely to cross this threshold again.”

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