A man whose wife had just given birth to their first child was visiting the hospital nursery to see his new son. As the proud father was admiring his handsome baby through the glass partition, he could not help but notice that the baby in the next bassinet seemed frail and sickly looking by comparison. Just then a nurse went walking by and the man stopped her for a moment.

"What's the matter with that little fellow?" he asked. "He seems awfully puny and underweight."

"He's one of those artificial insemination babies," explained the nurse, "and he's been coming along rather slowly, I'm afraid."

"Well, that sort of confirms a theory of mine," said the man.

"What's that?" asked the nurse.

Replied the man with a smile, "Spare the rod and spoil the child."