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CHAPTER VI. 



THE PARABLE OF JOASH. 



I. QOME ten or twelve years ago, I bought — 

 three times twelve are thirty-six — of a 

 delightful little book by Mrs. Gatty, called ' Aunt 

 Judy's Tales ' — whereof to make presents to my little 

 lady friends. I had, at that happy time, perhaps 

 from four-and-twenty to six-and-thirty — I forget 

 exactly how many — very particular little lady friends ; 

 and greatly wished Aunt Judy to be the thirty- 

 seventh, — the kindest, wittiest, prettiest girl one 

 had ever read of, at least in so entirely proper 

 and orthodox literature. 



2. Not but that it is a suspicious sign of infirmity 

 of faith in our modern moralists to make their 

 exemplary young people always pretty ; and dress 

 them always in the height of the fashion. One 

 may read Miss Edgeworth's ' Harry and Lucy,' 

 ' Frank and Mary,' ' Fashionable Tales,' or ' Parents' 

 Assistant,' through, from end to end, with extremest 

 care ; and never find out whether Lucy was tall or 

 short, nor whether Mary was dark or fair, nor how 



