Hilton, author, as you'll remember of "Lost Horizon," "Knight Without Armour," "The Silver Flame," "Cath-crine Herself," "Contango" "And Now Good-bye," (or as American know it, "Good-bye, Mr. Chi, Murder at School" is not preci: Christmas reading. And yet, perhaps it is vorticularly appropriate Christmas reading. At any rate, Martha, hastily picking up a book to give away, selected it for the author's name, happened to open it at a sombre page, and chose another, guaranteed to make one laugh:
But reading the book in a quiet interlude between holiday gaieties the conviction grew that this was a book well worth reading and particularly so at this time. The plot is slender. A clever "short short-story" writer might boil it down to a magazine page. with the punch in the last two lines. Put the joy o! the tale is in the charm of its telling and especially in the delicate psychological insight it evinces. It helps one to understand the unusual, often trying people one finds, the exhibitionist child, the inarticulate adult, the life that goes on under surface appearances, and most of all, the need for sympathy and kindness. Not such bad reading for Christmas, after all Not "Preachy"
Bu please don't think that this is erman, even a moral tale. It is interesting, well told story, worth while reading for the narrative alone. One of the noteworthy bits in the books occurs when the hero, a devoted physician and surgeon, condemned ie die for a murder which he did not commit, replies to the well-meant suggestion of the chaplain of the el, that his young son be told that his father has joined the army in the Great War and made the "supreme orifice." replies "Oh no, no—"
"But why not, m: David said quietly: don't think I could eve: body."
Fin talking about the War."
"I knew. That's what mean.
Var is killing."
Suddenly the little doctor's voice ro; slightly. "How could I spend so many years fighting for life and then fight against it?
Why do you expect me to undo everything I have exer done? How can you live and sleep while this is all happening; Bom cun you? Governor—preacher—we've put such a lot of trust in you two—why have you let things come to this? Why can't you save us from these crazy miseries? Why should we put up with you if you can't? What use are you? People only ask to live. in peace and do their work—you can e all the noise and nonsense to yourselves! We don't ask miracles.
in God's nàme, haven't you anything in two thousand We're not afraid of death. but we'll need to be afraid of life itself unless you fix things better in the future!"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.