A GALLERY OF CHILDREN

Pooh Corners will seem wild and woolly beside these twelve whimsical little fancies. Two are about princesses and others are about--well, princesses: chiefly the English sort who have very important fathers like Mr. Theophilus Banks--""I forget what he did exactly, but it was very important, and if he didn't do it, then where should we all be?"" What the children do is even harder to specify. Most active are ""The Three Daughters of M. Dupont"" whose surname becomes Dewpond when they ""become Americans for a change""; their big gesture consists of sending out the linen (including 112 tablecloths) as a surprise for their mother. But plot and even character are incidental to Milne's fond little jibes in these nursery-sized anecdotes of manners. One can understand how they charmed in their day without regretting that their day is gone.