A Seaman's Wife's Reckoning

A young woman sits holding an infant and turns towards an elderly man beside her. Her sailor husband at right, rises from his chair and stares warily at his father. The old man, who wears a seaman's uniform, scowls towards his son, saying, "Why d'ye see I am an old Seaman and not easily imposed upon—I say that cant be my Son Jacks child why he has been married but three months and during that time he has been at sea—the thing is impossible you may as well tell me that my ship Nancy goes nine knots an hour in a dead calm, and now I look again its the very picture of Peter Wilkins the Soap Boiler." The woman says: "My dear Father-in Law, Ill make it out very easily—Jack has been married to me three months—very well—I have been with child three months—which makes six—then he has been to sea three months has not he?— and that just makes up the Nine!!" The husband says: "Father, Farther [sic],—dont be too hard upon Poll—I know something of the log book myself—and d—m me but she has kept her reckoning like a true Seamans wife."