fatal application of the cold-water cure.

And, finally, it results in such a confusion between foot-walks and
beds--such a mixture of earth and gravel, and thrown-down tools--that
anyone unused to the symptoms of the case, might imagine that the
door of the pigsty in the yard had been left open, and that its
inhabitant had been performing sundry uncouth gambols with his nose
in the little ones' gardens.

Aunt Judy was quite aware of these facts, and she had accordingly
laid down several rules, and given several instructions to prevent
the usual catastrophe; and all went very smoothly at first in
consequence. The little ones went out all hilarity and delight, and
divided the tools with considerable show of justice, while Aunt Judy
nodded to them approvingly out of her window, and then settled down
to an interesting sum in that most peculiar of all arithmetical
rules, "The Rule of False," the principle of which is, that out of
two errors, made by yourself from two wrong guesses, you arrive at a
discovery of the truth!

When Aunt Judy first caught sight of this rule, a few days before, at
the end of an old summing-book, it struck her fancy at once. The
principle of it was capable of a much more general application than
to the "Rule of False," and she amused herself by studying it up.

It is, no doubt, a clumsy substitute for algebra; but young folks who
have not learnt algebra, will find it a very entertaining method of
making out all such sums as the following old puzzler, over which
Aunt Judy was now poring: