Dreaming of what then was happing t’other side yon chamber door,

Stood the doctor there, and whispered, opening the chamber door,

“’Tis a boy!” and nothing more.

Ah, distinctly I remember, by my chilblains, ’twas December,

And I stamped each smarting member, stamped it smartly on the floor.

Eagerly I wished for slumber, as my feet and hands grew number;

Oh, could I some bed encumber, oh, how quickly I would snore!

Oh, how I would wake the echoes with my deep sonorous snore!

But my vigil was not o’er.

For as I thus thought of snoring, came a sound of liquid pouring—