Starting Strong

A man who was obliged to go on a journey confided his daughter to a friend with the request that he should watch over her virtue during his absence. Some months later he returned, and found that she was pregnant. As was natural, he reproached his friend, who, however, seemed unable to explain the misfortune. "Well," asked the father at last, "where did she sleep?" -"In the same room with my son."- " But how could you let her sleep in the same room as your son after I'd begged you to look after her?" - "After all there was a screen between them. Your daughter's bed was on one side and my son's bed on the other, with the screen between them." -"And suppose he walked round the screen?" - "Yes, there is that," replied the other thoughtfully; "it might have happened like that."