l additions.

The publishers hope to have the active cooeperation of parents, teachers,
superintendents, and all who are interested in the formation of good
taste in reading among young people.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY,

_4 Park Street, Boston; 11 East 17th Street, New York._

Critical Notices.

_FISKE'S War of Independence._

John Fiske's book, "The War of Independence," is a miracle. I can never
understand why, when a perfect literary work is issued, all the critics
do not clap their hands! I think it must be because they never read the
books. This story of the war is such a book, brilliant and effective
beyond measure. It should be read by every voter in the United States.
It is a statement that every child can comprehend, but that only a man
of consummate genius could have written.--MRS. CAROLINE H. DALL, in the
Springfield _Republican_.

The story of the Revolution, as Mr. Fiske tells it, is one of surpassing
interest. His treatment is a marvel of clearness and comprehensiveness;
discarding non-essential details, he selects with a fine historic
instinct the main currents of history, traces them with the utmost
precision, and tells the whole story in a masterly fashion. His little
volume will be a text-book for older quite as much as for young
readers.--_Christian Union._

_SCUDDER'S George Washington._

Mr. Scudder's biography of Washington is a fit companion volume for Mr.
Fiske's little history. It tells the story of the great patriot,
soldier, and statesman with simplicity, sincerity, and completeness. It
is not too much to say of these books that they ought to be put into the
hands of every boy and girl, not only because of that which they
contain, but because of the soundness of their form.--_Christian Union_
(New York).

Mr. Horace E. Scudder has executed a difficult task in a praiseworthy
manner. In spite of the innumerable lives of the first President, who
shall say anything new of his career and paint it in fresh colors? Mr.
Scudder has been able to do this, and his book will be welcomed by old
and young.--_Boston Beacon._

_MERRIAM'S Birds through an Opera Glass._

A capital text-book of the right sort for young observers of Natural
History. By text-book we do not mean a formal school-book, but a book
with a clear method, a capital style, and adequate information. This
little volume describes all the birds to be found in our fields and
woods; describes them, not as an ornitho