VI. THE PARABLE OF JOASH. 119 



Miss Annaly was dressed, nor — which was my own 

 chief point of interest — what was the colour of Rosa- 

 mond's eyes. Whereas Aunt Judy, in charming 

 position after position, is shown to have expressed 

 all her pure evangelical principles with the prettiest 

 of lips ; and to have had her gown, though puri- 

 tanically plain, made by one of the best modistes 

 in London. 



3. Nevertheless, the book is wholesome and useful ; 

 and the nicest story in it, as far as I recollect, is 

 an inquiry into the subject which is our present 

 business, ' What is a weed ? ' — in which, by many 

 pleasant devices, Aunt Judy leads her little brothers 

 and sisters to discern that a weed is ' a plant in 

 the wrong place.' 



' Vegetable ' in the wrong place, by the way, I 

 think Aunt Judy says, being a precisely scientific 

 little aunt. But I can't keep it out of my own less 

 scientific head that ' vegetable ' means only some- 

 thing going to be boiled. I like ' plant ' better for 

 general sense, besides that it's shorter. 



Whatever we call them, Aunt Judy is perfectly 

 right about them as far as she has gone ; but, as 

 happens often even to the best of evangelical instruc- 

 tresses, she has stopped just short of the gist of 

 the whole matter. It is entirely true that a weed 

 is a plant that has got into a wrong place ; but 



