“He said, ‘Just see what two brothers can do when they pull together’,” and Pod commenced to chuckle.
But none of the others cracked a smile. Of course, they all understood the joke, but simply to irritate Pod, they pretended that they did not.
“I say, he said, ‘Just see what two brothers can do when they pull together’,” repeated Pod. “Don’t you see—pull together—two of them?”
“‘Pull together—two of them’,” echoed Tom, looking inquiringly at Chot.
“Yes; there were evidently two brothers,” said Chot. “Don’t you understand, Tom? They were dentists. They didn’t want to pull the tooth for this patient, but——”
“Oh, you don’t catch it yet,” said Pod. He was exasperated as he always was when one of his jokes fell flat. “This patient had a sense of humor——”
“Oh, I see it now,” said Fleet. “The patient had a sense of humor, fellows, so he went to have his tooth pulled. That’s the funniest thing I ever heard,” and Fleet laughed uproariously.
“No; you haven’t caught the point yet, Fleet,” said Chot. “The point to this joke lies in the fact that the patient went to see two dentists at one time. He stood there watching them for a moment, you understand, trying to decide which one he wanted to pull his tooth. Each of the dentists wanted to pull the tooth, but the patient only wanted one of the dentists to pull the tooth. Well, can’t you see—er—that is, to say——”
“I understand perfectly,” said Tom. “The joke is that both of the dentists wanted to pull the same tooth. That was funny, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t believe you’ve quite got it yet,” said Fleet. “You see when this patient entered the dentist’s office——”