The Forrest City times., 1904-05-27
TALE OF A GREEDY BOY.
Sacrificed Sound Tooth to Get Spend- ing Money and Got
 Badly Left.

- so NN"Vl udS ol Cudp WnO sSn {
 much of a spender. {" relates a Washing
 lon Star writer. said of the stingy one: why. that fellow doesn't think any
 more or a nickel than he does of his risnt eye. Which reminded me of an eAperiehce or two bearing upon my own youthIul greed. l believe that am not
 regarded. now that I'm grown up, as d
 elose-hSted individual But when was
 small boy l grieve to say that once
 saerlneed good tooth for two bits that
 l didn't get
 was about at the age when my milk teeth were beginning to loosen-nine or ten. or something like that. One day
 had pretty bad toothache. and told
 my dad about it.
 Well, there's another one right un- derneath the aching molar. and it's try Ing to sprout.' my dad told me. Better go and have the aching one yanked.
 Wait minute and I'll write you a note to the dentist
 lie scrubbed a note to the family dentist. and raced over to the dentists oIhee, holding my throbbing jaw. The dentlst was fine looking. white beard ca benevolent looking old gentleman.
 friend or my dads for 90 years back
 lie read my dads note. patted me on the
 head in kindly way. planted me in the operating chair and felt of the jumping tooth-l suppose that he really could
 have pulled it out with his fingers. I was so anxious to have it out that 1 | didn't buck or vince even when he pro- ducec the forceps. and suppose the old dentist imagined from that that I was
 rather spunky sort of youngster Anyhow, as soon as he had pulled the tooth, he patted me on the head some more, telling me that was fine. plucky boy and just like my father. Then he | reached down into his pantaloons. hauled out bundle. stripped off 25- cent shinplaster from it and handed 1t | to me
 Tt won't hurt any if you get a bit of 1 candy into the void left by that tooth, | son. he said to me. smiling benevolently. as he handed me the shinplaster. and then, charging me to give his regards to my father, he turned to another suffering | patient in waiting and ran out
 ''I had a wild and prolonged period of
 riot with that 25-cent shnplaster. of | course. My folks weren't rich. and they weren't very strong on that small | change thing for the boys of the family 1 A few nickels year constituted the l grab-out that I achieved at home. and you are rot to forget that didn't do as i well as that. either until had far more than delivered the goods in the way of splitting kindling cleaning up the back yard. trotting errands, hoeing the gar den. and so on.
 50 that that 25-cent shinplaster struck me as being pretty soft for me. The memory of it haunted me for couple of weeks after the piece of money had been blown in. and the more I thought of it the more easy that benevolent old dentist seemed to me Fact is I began to get sore because I wasn't revisited by the toothache. l was angry because all the rest of my teeth seemed as sound as riyets. l wanted another chance 10 visit that kindly old dentist. for 1 was certain in my own mind that the giv- ing of 25-cent shinplasters was just as much habit with him as eating. So I was hit by an inspiration. hadn't any tooth that needed pulling. but nobody else knew that. I could pretend that one of them was jump ing almost out of it's socket. and who would be the wiser2 How could any body. even the dentist. know that I was faking if declared that one of my sound teeth was yelling murder?
 No sooner thought out than acted upon. chased over to the old den lists office again. but this time with out any note-l hadn't said a word to my dad about my counterfeit aching tooth l was holding my jaw and had my face screwed into an imitation ex- pression of anguish when the good old dentist received me.
 'Ha. my boy another bad tooth?" he said. in his kindly way when he saw me. and from his pleasant way judged that that 25-cent shinplaster No. ? was just as good as in my pocket.
 Holding on to my expression of great misery. I climbed into his chair and pointed out one of my front teeth "a tooth that was as sound as a sil- yer dollar and hadn't even the symp- tom of an ache in 1t. The good old dentist felt of ic. examined it closely. and then said that the tooth seemed to be pretty good-he couldn't make out why il should be aching pro- tested that it was almost killing me. all the same. So he pulled 1t out, and maybe it didn't hurt,
 When it was out and had climbed out of the operating chair. had the first nickel of that 25-cent shinplaster as good as spent. stood in front of the good old dentist. gazing at him coyly.
 " Feel better now. son?' he in- quired as he busted himself with his tools An. glad to hear that You'll be all right. Now. run along. son. like a good boy. ani don't forget to give your father my compliments
 Talk about being hit on the wish