The Opelousas courier., 1894-04-28
A TROUBLESOME TOOTH.
BY NJ

ouCloiC, cooi, 1 Joul Aoau hoCpe
on gettin' much bigger you'll hev to
wear a peck measure stead of a hat!"
Mrs. Tottenham turned from the sink,
where she was peeling potatoes, and
looked ppyingly at her husband. Josiah
sat near the kitchen stove, holding his
head sidewise to the heat, with a most
dolorous expression on his swollen face.
"Why don't y go aud hev it hauled?''
continued Mrs. Tottenham, as Josiah sat
grooming and swaying in the old calico
cushioned rocking chair. "Seems to me
# was a man l wouldn't set and suffer
as you be # there was a pair O. pinchers
and doctor anywhere within ten miles.
Sakes alive! how you be a squirmin'!
Hew it out, l say. Hain't y got the
curridge?" az
Josiah 1%'ottenham looked up %piteously,
twisting his long, lank body in the
rocking-clair until his stiff and swollen
face squa-ely fronted his wife. 81
daresn't!' be groaned. Lord! it jumps
wus'n a grasshopper ev'ry time l think
ont. l co lldn't bear to hav no pinchers
scrunched into them tender gums. Oh,
Lord! Oh, Lord! Ugh-h-h-h!"
With a long, signing groan Josiah
T%ottenham dropped over the stove and
stared blankly at the teakettle before
him. Mrs. Tottenham stood in ~perplexed
thought for a moment. Then a definite
line Of argument seemed to suggest itself
to her, and she broke out, with apparent
irrelevancy:
"Josi', do you remember the time you
cut the Durham bulls tail?"
Josiah groaned affirmatively.
Show he started off Oh the lump m
snaked y all round the barnyard, M
slowed y int the fence n dragged y on
yer back, but y never let go-just hung
OH like a plarster-'n' finally got yer
knife to the right spot m sliced the crit
ter's tail jest where y wanted to?"
For moment Josiah forgot his trouble
some tooth under the spell of his wife's
vivid narration of a well-remembered
triumph. He even attempted to smile,
but the twinge of pain that shot through
his nerves brought him back to the
doleful present and he groaned aloud.
81 seq to myself that day." continued
Mrs. Tottenham, automatically, s'there's
few men en- compare with JOSH
for pure grit" She turned to
the pan Of potatoes and worked in silence
for a minute, then resumed:
"Member the time y kotched a tramp
in the lower barn last spring m
hauled him out by the coat an ducked
him in the trough!"
Josiah nodded. 1t was pleasant to be
entertained with "reminiscences of ones
personal proves, even though the pleas
ure were punctuated with twinges of
toothache. "Y' know | SEE TO you them"
continued Mrs. T%ottenham, 'that I
reckoned you wuz cut out FIR a soldier r
some outdoor employment requirin' brav-
Mr.. Tottenham grunted complacentlv.
But the best of ALL" exclaimed his
wife, with triumphant climacteric fervor,
Hwuz when the old mare kicked yer in
stall and broke yer leg, an y jest
hoped around and hitched her up an
druv FIR yer own doctor without sayin' d
word to nobody. l call that genooine
hee-roism, now" /!
Josiah's eyes glowed. He began to
that he really was a man of un-
fortitude, and he i%nnocently
unsuspectingly reioiced in the
Being neither logician nor
diplomat, he did not gee the point at
which the wife vas driving; and when
'he finally turned upon him, exclaiming,
'sJosi', eff I wuz such a man as you be
I'd feel ashamed to knuckle down to a
eetle snub of a tooth! /" he was too as
;onished and bewildercd to reply. The
did seem ridiculous; he was
to admit that. But, oh! those
cold, cruel, crunching "pinch-
'rs!" Suddenly a compromise occurred
0 him. "Why couldn't you pull it,
darthya" he asked. Il seen you pull
me of Eben's teeth. onct, with a string"
"P'raps | could!' cried Mrs. Totem
lam, whirling with readiness that made
|osiah start. tLemme hev a look in
,our mouth, JOSH"
The oddly assorted couple went to the
vindow--Josiah six feet four in his
tockings, and Martha four feet six in
Iers. Martha Tottenham was the small
st woman in Willowtown and Josiah
was the largest man. Josiah
at down in a chair facing the window
nd opened his mouth as widely as he
ould under the circumstances. His wife
into the dark cavity with the
Impressed lips and frowning brow of
whose attention is taxed to the Tt
lost. "There's two or three angry
,okin' ones, JOSH she said. (Which
'em do you s'pose 'tis2"
s'The for'ard one o. the Let. I c~al'late,"
eplied Josiah. 1.-THE pain seems to
inder creep that way"
ssWal, now you jest SIT right where
ou be till / get a string" said Mrs.
ottenham, moving away briskly to-
ard the pantry. Josian's hands, grip
ing the chair back, as he sat facing it,
ere bloodless with the intensity of his
asp. Eben, the eldest boy, had come
from the barn and stood stupidity star
6 at his father.
"Goin' to have it nauledYn he asked in /
awestruck tone. His father nodded
,nvulsively, looking straight out Of the
lndow up into the sky, his head tilted
lex and his mouth open IN an~ticipatory
,ony. Mrs. Tottenham came out OF the 1
'ntry with 9 piece Of fine braided silk |