Mr. Hose came back at about 12 o'clock he had drunken a little whiskey
but it made no effect on him. He woke early the next morning and woke
his wife and began telling her all about his evening stroll with Mr.
Leanep but he did not say anything about the whiskey he had drunk
feering it would shock her. But when the clock had just struck half past
six they heard a ring at the door bell and within a few minutes the maid
servant came hurrying up stairs and said the Dr. had arrived with a box
under his arm and he would like to see Mrs. Hose she said. "Oh well,
will you show him up to this bedroom" said Mrs. Hose turning to her
husband and saying "you don't mind him coming up, do you dear?" Mary
went out of the room grinning, closing the door quietly behind her.
In a few minutes the Dr's. bold step was heard at the door and then a
loud knock and with a "come in" from Mrs. Hose he entered the room.
"Oh I say Mrs Hose" he began taking off his hat "I have heard you have
been wishing for a baby, so I have brought you one and your wish is
granted."
"Oh hurrah" said Mrs. Hose "Is it a boy or a girl?"
"Well I don't know" said the Dr. _quite_, "but I'll leave you to find
out and settle matters" so saying Dr. Pauline took his departure
shutting the door with his foot, while he held his precious top hat in
his two hands.
As soon as the Dr. left the room, Mr. Hose began hurrahing and laughing
at the idea of the new baby coming. "I am very glad it's come, arn't
you?" he said to his wife.
"Yes, I'm very glad. Hasn't it come early?"
"Yes," said her husband, "but don't you think we had better open the box
and look at it?" "Well perhaps we had," said his wife, cutting the
string with a pair of scissors which were lying on the bed. Directly the
box was opened, a dear little fat baby rolled out on to the eider down.
"Oh, isn't it a darling?" said Mrs. Hose, sitting up in bed, and placing
it between her and her husband, "What a pity it hasn't got its eyes
open."
"Oh, but it's asleep," said Mr. Hose; "they never have their eyes open
when they are asleep, except when they are very ill."
"Oh, yes, I see now it is asleep, it is blinking its eyelids."
"Hadn't we better be wrapping it up in something, it must be rather
cold, poor little thing," he said, patting its face.
"Oh, yes, of course we must," said his wife, jumping out of bed, never
stopping to put on her dressing slippers, she walked over to the
wardrobe.
She unlocked it with a small key she kept in her drawer, and on the
third shelf she found a small, pale blue shawl, which she had had when
she was a baby, and she had kept it ever since, in case she should have
a baby when she was grown up.
"Here's the very thing," she said, "the shawl I had when I was a baby,"
she said, skipping back to bed.
"Oh yes, that's a nice shawl," said Mr. Hose, "and it's pretty big too,
we can wrap it all round it; and you can cuddle it close to you, and
then it would be warm, I should say."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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