Since Mr. Jacobs has already published fifteen volumes of stories of seafaring men, it is scarcely necessary to review at length his last book. This is, therefore, not a criticism, but an appreciation, for those who have once loved Mr. Jacobs's humour can never cease to love it, and must needs hold out to others the pleasure that is theirs. His is the humour, not of the unexpected, but of the obvious, at the opposite pole to Mr. Chesterton's fantasies, the humour of the man who sits down on his hat, the humour, if we may be allowed the expression, of the man who cannot see a joke. Here, in...