“What is the matter, husband?”
So I told her my dream, and how in my sleep my gladness had overcome me.
“It was this little darling that set you dreaming so,” she said, and turning, put the baby in my arms.
CHAPTER VI. THE NEW BABY.
I will not attempt to describe the astonishment of the members of our household, each in succession, as the news of the child spread. Charlie was heard shouting across the stable-yard to his brother:
“Harry, Harry! Mamma has got a new baby. Isn’t it jolly?”
“Where did she get it?” cried Harry in return.
“In the parsley-bed, I suppose,” answered Charlie, and was nearer right than usual, for the information on which his conclusion was founded had no doubt been imparted as belonging to the history of the human race.
But my reader can easily imagine the utter bewilderment of those of the family whose knowledge of human affairs would not allow of their curiosity being so easily satisfied as that of the boys. In them was exemplified that confusion of the intellectual being which is produced by the witness of incontestable truth to a thing incredible—in which case the probability always is, that the incredibility results from something in the mind of the hearer falsely associated with and disturbing the true perception of the thing to which witness is borne.