] Do you think Bertha looks like me?
NURSE. Of course! Why, you are as like as two peas.
CAPTAIN. Did Johansson confess that he was the father?
NURSE. He was forced to!
CAPTAIN. How terrible! Here is the Doctor. [Doctor comes in.] Good
evening, Doctor. How is my mother-in-law?
DOCTOR. Oh, it's nothing serious; merely a slight sprain of the
left ankle.
CAPTAIN. I thought Margret said it was a cold. There seem to be
different opinions about the same case. Go to bed, Margret.
[Nurse goes. A pause.]
CAPTAIN. Sit down, Doctor.
DOCTOR [Sits]. Thanks.
CAPTAIN. Is it true that you obtain striped foals if you cross a
zebra and a mare?
DOCTOR [Astonished]. Perfectly true.
CAPTAIN. Is it true that the foals continue to be striped if the
breed is continued with a stallion?
DOCTOR. Yes, that is true, too.
CAPTAIN. That is to say, under certain conditions a stallion can be
sire to striped foals or the opposite?
DOCTOR. Yes, so it seems.
CAPTAIN. Therefore an offspring's likeness to the father proves
nothing?
DOCTOR. Well-- -- --
CAPTAIN. That is to say, paternity cannot be proven.
DOCTOR. H'm-- --well-- --
CAPTAIN. You are a widower, aren't you, and have had children?
DOCTOR. Ye-es.
CAPTAIN. Didn't you ever feel ridiculous as a. father? I know of
nothing so ludicrous as to see a father leading his children by the
hand around the streets, or to hear it father talk about his
children. "My wife's children," he ought to say.
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