‘Cook-housekeeper jobs don’t grow on trees,’ went on the woman, ‘leastways not where you can keep a youngster with you.’

Soon we come to the mother-to-be-any-minute-now in the delivery room, and there is some question about whether the father can/will/wants to get to the hospital in time for the blessed event.

There was […] fire mingled with the hail.

to log the miles travelled by a ship