spectacle.

"And now rearrange yourself," I said, "and in the meanwhile I
will go and wash the baby."

"Yes, yes," she murmured uneasily. "But be very careful with
him--be very gentle."

Yet it was little enough care that the rosy little homunculus
seemed to require, so strenuously did he clench his fists, and
bawl as though he were minded to challenge the whole world to
combat.

"Come, now!" at length I said. "You must have done, or your
very head will drop off."

Yet no sooner did he feel the touch of the ocean spray, and
begin to be sprinkled With its joyous caresses, than he lamented
more loudly and vigorously than ever, and so continued
throughout the process of being slapped on the back and breast
as, frowning and struggling, he vented squall after squall while
the waves laved his tiny limbs.

"Shout, young Orlovian!" said I encouragingly. "Let fly with
all the power of your lungs!"

And with that, I took him back to his mother. I found her with
eyes closed and lips drawn between her teeth as she writhed in
the torment of expelling the after-birth. But presently I
detected through the sighs and groans a whispered: