The native thought a moment.
“Tuppence,” he said.
§ 301 Extending Down to the Very Bottom
Let us not forget the story of the young woman who had a tooth which must come out. She agreed with the practitioner that it should be drawn, but each time he brought the forceps into view she clenched her jaws tightly together and refused to open them until he put down the shining instrument to argue with her.
Finally he had an inspiration. He bade his woman assistant get a long hatpin from her hat and station herself just behind where the obdurate patient sat.
“Now, then,” he counseled her, “when I get the forceps right close to her lips I’ll give you the signal and you jab the hatpin clear up through the seat of the chair. Naturally, she’ll open her mouth to say ‘Ouch!’ and then I’ll get that tooth. It’s very loose—it’ll come out in a jiffy.”
The artifice worked. As the dentist held up the ousted tooth he said soothingly:
“Now, then, that wasn’t so bad after all, was it?”
“No,” said the relieved sufferer; “only one sharp, darting pain. But oh, doctor, I had no idea that the roots of a tooth went down so deep!”