GOING TO THE DENTIST’S.

Dunstan Times, Issue 699, 10 September 1875, Page 4

GOING TO THE DENTIST’S.

“ I like to coma across a man with a toothache," There's somethin" so pleasant in advising him tri-stuff cotton in it, to use camphor, creosote, peppermint, and “relief,” that 1 always feel hotter after giving it. 1 have heen there— had an aching stump —and 1 know just how it fools. It used to wake mo up at nights, and make me mad at neon, and almost set me crasy early in the morning. I didn’t meet man or woman hut what they advised mo. One said that a hot knitting needle pushed down to the roots was excellent ; another said that opium was a good thing ; and others said it must he dug out by the dentist. They smiled when they said so—smiled like friends. They didn’t know that the old stump seemed an inch too high awl was as tender as my eye, and that the bare thought of “ digging out” made a chill run up my spine. Yes, they did know it, too ; hut it wasn’t their stump and they didn’t care. If I sat down to dinner that old tooth began to growl. If I went to bed, or got up, or went to a parly, or stayed at home, “ she” growled just the same It wasn’t always a growl ; sometimes it was a jump that made my hair stand up, and again a sort of cutting pain that made me make up faces at baby, and slam doors and break things. 1 took peppermint, camphor, and opium until I got black in the face, and that old snag kept right on. I put bags of hot ashes to my cheek, applied mustard, held my head in the oven, took a sweat, and the ache still ached. After the third week the neighbors didn’t dare let their hoys pass my house, and pedlars and canvassers went around on another street. I was becoming a menagerie, and at last I decided to have my tooth out, 1 decided to, and then I decided not to. I changed my mind four times in one afternoon, and at last I went. The dentist was glad to see me. He said if he could not take that tooth out without hurting me he would give me a million dollars. It got easier as he talked, and I concluded not to have it pulled. I started down stairs, but the stump caught me and I rushed back. He said he would look at it ; perhaps it did not need pulling at all, hut ho could kill the nerve. By dint of flattery he got me in the chair. Then he softly inserted the knife and cut away the gums. I leaped up and said I would kill him ; but he begged of me not to, said the cutting was all the pain there was to it. He finally got me to lean hack and open my mouth, and then he slipped in his forceps and closed them around the tooth. “ Ohso dorordonbordosororsor !” I cried ; hut he didn’t pay any attention to it. He drew in a full breath, grasped his forceps tightly, and then ho pulled. “ Great Spoons ! but didn’t it seem as if my head was going 1 I tried to shout, grapple at him, kicked, and then he held up the old snag and said, — “There! 1 guess you won’t feel any more aching !” I leaped down and hugged him. I promised him millions. I told him to make my house his home for ever. I almost hugged him. T-shook hands with everybody on the street, kissed my husband, bought baby a dozen rattle-boxes in a heap, and it seemed to me as if the world was to small for me, 1 was so happy.