y-five, and confirmed the opinion of his strength by redoubled
squeezes of the landlord's hand, which never failed of extorting a
satisfactory certificate of his might. When his companions drank to the
Hans en kelder, or Jack in the low cellar, he could not help displaying
an extraordinary complacence of countenance, and signified his intention
of sending the young dog to sea as soon as he should be able to carry a
cartridge, in hopes of seeing him an officer before his own death.

This hope helped to console him under the extraordinary expense to
which he was exposed by the profusion of his wife, especially when he
considered that his compliance with her prodigality would be limited to
the expiration of the nine months, of which the best part was by this
time elapsed: yet, in spite of all this philosophical resignation, her
fancy sometimes soared to such a ridiculous and intolerable pitch of
insolence and absurdity, that his temper forsook him, and he could
not help wishing in secret that her pride might be confounded in the
dissipation of her most flattering hopes, even though he himself should
be a principal sufferer by the disappointment. These, however, were no
other than the suggestions of temporary disgusts, that commonly subsided
as suddenly as they arose, and never gave the least disturbance to the
person who inspired them, because he took care to conceal them carefully
from her knowledge.

Meanwhile she happily advanced in her reckoning, with the promise of a
favourable issue: the term of her computation expired, and in the middle
of the night she was visited by certain warnings that seemed to bespeak
the approach of the critical moment. The commodore got up with great
alacrity, and called the midwife, who had been several days in the
house; the gossips were immediately summoned, and the most interesting
expectations prevailed; but the symptoms of labour gradually vanished,
and as the matrons sagely observed, this was no more than a false alarm.

Two nights after they received a second intimation, and as she was
sensibly diminished in the waist, everything was supposed to be in a
fair way; yet this visitation was not more conclusive than the former;
her pains wore off in spite of all her endeavours to encourage them,
and the good women betook themselves to their respective homes, in
expectation of finding the third attack decisive, alluding to the
well-known maxim, that "number three is always fortunate." For