Our Tenth Child

our tenth child

Illus: A very elderly couple was having an elegant dinner to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. The old man leaned forward and said softly to his wife:

"Dear, there is something that I must ask you. It has always bothered me that our tenth child never quite looked like the rest of our children. Now I want to assure you that these 75 years have been the most wonderful experience I could have ever hoped for, and your answer cannot take that all that away. But, I must know, did he have a different father?"

The wife dropped her head, unable to look her husband in the eye; she paused for moment and then confessed. "Yes. Yes he did."

The old man was very shaken, the reality of what his wife was admitting hit him harder than he had expected.

With a tear in his eye he asked "Who?.. Who was he? Who was the father?"

Again the old woman dropped her head, saying nothing at first as she tried to muster the courage to tell the truth to her husband. Then, finally, she said "You are the father of our tenth child".