Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/79



ND 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