CHAPTER XVII

----And pray, good woman, after all, will you take upon you to say, it may not be the child’s hip, as well as the child’s head? ------’Tis most certainly the head, replied the midwife. Because, continued Dr. _Slop_ (turning to my father) as positive as these old ladies generally are--’tis a point very difficult to know--and yet of the greatest consequence to be known; ----because, Sir, if the hip is mistaken for the head--there is a possibility (if it is a boy) that the forceps * * * * * *

----What the possibility was, Dr. _Slop_ whispered very low to my father, and then to my uncle _Toby_. ----There is no such danger, continued he, with the head. --No, in truth, quoth my father--but when your possibility has taken place at the hip--you may as well take off the head too.

----It is morally impossible the reader should understand this----’tis enough Dr. _Slop_ understood it; ----so taking the green bays bag in his hand, with the help of _Obadiah’s_ pumps, he tripp’d pretty nimbly, for a man of his size, across the room to the door------and from the door was shewn the way, by the good old midwife, to my mother’s apartments.

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