BIRTH

A little boy asked his mother where he came from, and also where she had come from as a baby. His mother gave him a tall tale about a beautiful white-feathered bird. The boy asked his grandmother the same question and received a variation on the bird story. Outside to his playmate he said, "You know, there hasn't been a normal birth in our family for three generations."

Howard Hendricks, quoted in Homemade, September, 1989.

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family.

Laurence Housman