comfortable in the cradle along with the starboard
baby (otherwise Heavysides), accordingly?
Now, what happened after that?"

"Don't ask me, sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Drabble,
losing her self-control, and wringing her
hands desperately.

"Steady, ma'am! I'll put it to you as plain
as print. Steady! and listen to me. Just as
you had made the larboard baby comfortable, I
had occasion to send you into the starboard (or
Heavysides) cabin, to fetch something which I
wanted in the larboard (or Smallchild) cabin; I
kept you there a little while along with me; I
left you, and went into the Heavysides cabin,
and called to you to bring me something I wanted
out of the Smallchild cabin, but before you
got half way across the main cabin, I said 'No;
stop where you are, and I'll come to you;'
immediately after which, Mrs. Smallchild alarmed
you, and you came across to me of your own
accord; and, thereupon, I stopped you in the
main cabin, and said, 'Mrs. Drabble, your
mind's getting confused, sit down and collect
your scattered intellects; and you sat down,
and tried to collect them— ?"

("And couldn't, sir," interposed Mrs. Drabble,
parenthetically. "Oh, my head! my head!")

—"And tried to collect your scattered
intellects, and couldn't?" continued the doctor.
"And the consequence was, when I came out
from the Smallchild cabin to see how you were
getting on, I found you with the clothes-basket
cradle hoisted up on the cabin table, staring
down at the babies inside with your mouth
dropped open, and both your hands twisted in
your hair? And when I said, 'Anything wrong
with either of those two fine boys, Mrs. Drabble?'
you caught me by the coat-collar, and whispered
in my right ear these words: 'Lord save us
and help us, Mr. Jolly, I've confused the two
babies in my mind, and I don't know which is
which!'"

"And I don't know now!" cried Mrs. Drabble,
hysterically. " Oh, my head! my head! I
don't know now!"

"Captain Gillop and gentlemen," said Mr.
Jolly, wheeling round and addressing his audience
with the composure of sheer despair, "that is
the Scrape—and, if you ever heard of a worse
one, I'll trouble you to compose this miserable
woman by mentioning it immediately."

Captain Gillop looked at Mr. Purling and Mr.
Sims. Mr. Purling and Mr. Sims looked at
Captain Gillop. They were all three thunder-
struck—and no wonder.

"Can't you throw any light on it, Jolly?"
inquired the captain, who was the first to recover
himself.

"If you knew what I have had to do below,
you wouldn't ask me such a question as that,"
replied the doctor. "Remember that I have
had the lives of two women and two children to
answer for—remember that I have been cramped
up in two small sleeping-cabins, with hardly
room to turn round in, and just light enough
from two miserable little lamps to see my hand
before me—remember the professional difficulties
of the situation, the ship rolling about under
me all the while, and the stewardess to compose
into the bargain;—bear all that in mind, will you,
and then tell me how much spare time I had on
my hands for comparing two boys together inch
by inch—two boys born at night, within half an
hour of each other, on board a ship at sea. Ha!
ha! I only wonder the mothers and the boys
and the doctor are all five of them alive to tell
the story!"

"No marks on one or other of them, that
happened to catch your eye?" asked Mr. Sims.

"They must have been strongish marks to
catch my eye in the light I had to work by,
and in the professional difficulties I had to
grapple with," said the doctor. "I saw they
were both straight, well-formed children—and
that's all I saw!"

"Are their infant features sufficiently
developed to indicate a family likeness?" inquired
Mr. Purling. "Should you say they took after
their fathers or their mothers?"

"Both of them have light eyes, and light
hair—such as it is," replied Mr. Jolly, doggedly.
"Judge for yourself."

"Mr. Smallchild has light eyes and light hair,"
remarked Mr. Sims.

"And Simon Heavysides has light eyes and
light hair," rejoined Mr. Purling.

"I should recommend waking Mr. Smallchild,
and sending for Heavysides, and letting the two
fathers toss up for it," suggested Mr. Sims.

"The parental feeling is not to be trifled with
in that heartless manner," retorted Mr. Purling.
"I should recommend trying the Voice of
Nature."

"What may that be, sir?" inquired Captain
Gillop, with great curiosity.

"The maternal instinct," replied Mr. Purling.
"The mother's intuitive knowledge of her own
child."

"Ay, ay!" said the captain. "Well
thought of. What do you say, Jolly, to the
Voice of Nature?"

The doctor held up his hand impatiently. He
was engaged in resuming the effort to rouse
Mrs. Drabble's memory by a system of amateur
cross-examination, with the unsatisfactory
result of confusing her more hopelessly than ever.
Could she put the cradle back, in her own mind,
into its original position? No. Could she
remember whether she laid the starboard baby
(otherwise Heavysides) on the side of the cradle
nearest the stern of the ship, or nearest the bows?
No. Could she remember any better about the
larboard baby (otherwise Smallchild)? No.
Why did she move the cradle on to the cabin
table, and so bewilder herself additionally, when
she was puzzled already? Because it came over
her, on a sudden, that she had forgotten, in the
dreadful confusion of the time, which was which;
and of course she wanted to look closer at them,
and see; and she couldn't see; and to her dying
day she should never forgive herself; and let
them throw her overboard, for a miserable wretch,
if they liked,—and so on, till the persevering
doctor was wearied out at last, and gave up