“Then when I say, ‘Pity the poor,’ of course poor is a noun, is it?”
“No,” said Adjective, quickly; “poor is my word, I know, for you can say poor child, a poor thing. ‘Pity the poor’ really means, ‘Pity the poor people;’ but Mr. Noun is so stingy, that when he thinks the sentence will be understood without his word, he just leaves it out, and then people say the noun is understood.”
“Exactly so; but your way of finding out a noun does not answer, you see, for the first time I try it, you tell me the word I have found is an adjective.”
“It always answers unless there happens to be a word understood,” replied Adjective, “and then it answers if you use your reason; for any one would know that you are not asked to pity a thing called a poor, but to pity poor people. But it is not fair, my lord,” continued Adjective, turning to the Judge. “Here am I, a poor prisoner, unjustly accused of stealing, and Mr. Parsing is trying to puzzle me as much as he can.”
“Not at all,” replied Serjeant Parsing. “I only want you to be sure that you know clearly the difference between a noun and an adjective.”
“I do,” answered Adjective, “quite clearly.”
“Well, then, answer this question. What is the word beauty?”
“Beauty?” repeated Adjective, getting rather red; “beauty is a noun.”
“Yes,” said Serjeant Parsing; “and grace, and home, and duty?”
“They are all nouns,” answered Adjective, looking uncomfortable.