THE PRINCESS

This isn't up to Phil Stong's best, though he always spins a readable enough tale. One has the sense of his taking unjustified short cuts with his characters, his situations, that leave holes in his fabric. It is the story of a girl, brought up by a much older brother and the ""hired man"" (glorified in the character of a staunch old reprobate, whose chief aim in life is to live long enough to worry the insurance company) -- old beyond her years, and, at eighteen, forced to take over the management of a great Iowa farm, and to see it through the war, its aftermath, the ups and downs of boom and depression years. Almost she misses out on a normal woman's life, but at the end romance comes into its own. A rather prettified picture of farm life, where all goes in her favor -- and she can still trail velvets on state occasions.