The Washington herald., 1911-10-08
POLLY AND THE DENTIST

1OLLY TEMPLE had a fiery un,
pheasant duty TO perform. When
tell you that Polly'S tooth, her far
thest back one, had been aching for two
days. perhaps you will guess whit the
duty was. The first day Polly didn't say
a word about her tooth. for she rather
felt that if she mentioned it at all it
might lead TO something unpleasant She
didn't take any dessert at dinner. how
ever. and since it was ice cream, I,hich
she was always allowed to have, and of
which she was particularly fond, every
body noticed it and asked Polly if she
1idn't feel we'll
The next day at breakfast Polly couldn't
help giving a little squeal when she sud-
denly bit down upon the poor suffering
;ooth, and her mother looked at her sharp
", which made Polly so afraid that what
she dreaded was about to happen that
she MANAGED to summon enough courage
10 smile back at her mother, even though
her tooth was hurting her so dreadfully
that she wanted to scream. So her
mother thought that she had been mis-
taken and that her little daughter was
not suffering from the toothache at all.
But at luncheon time PoIly's toothache
had grown so much worse that she
really didn't care much what happened
next, and so she refused TO eat any
luncheon. and when her mother asked her
what the matter was she blurted the Sc
sret out as quickly as she could
I've got the most awful toothache"
"Ah," said her mamma, then we must
90 to the dentists at once. Hurry home
after school and l will make an appoint
ment with him by telephone so that we
ean 20 right down"
Polly didn't say a word. She knew it
was useless to object. and. really. i'll
didn't seem as if the dentist could be so
much worse than the toothache.
After school. however. it seemed diff
ferent. Strange to say the toothache
had grown ever so much better since she
had mentioned it to her mamma. II was
almost we'll. and Polly knew from for
mer experiences that the minute she
reached the dentists Office it would van
ish entirely.
So when Polly came out of school she
was not at all willing to make that jour
ney TO the dentists that her mamma had |
arranged for. She dragged her feet re-
1uctantly out of the school yard toward
home, wondering if she could persuade |
her mamma that the toothache was so
much better that it wouldn't be necessary
g. H.
No. she decided. that wouldn't be pos
sible at all. On other occasions she had
tried TO coax her mother to let her stay
away from the dentist when a toothache
had miraculouSly vanished in this same
fashion, and she had never succeeded.
Her mamma was a particularly firm per-
son when it came to dentists.
Just then a sound interrupted her pain
full thoughts. 1t was the sound of a To-
comotive, and suddenly an idea popped
into her head. The locomotive was at
tached to a train of cars, and these would {
certainly carry her far away from al
danger.
She had only to get on the train, and
her mamma would not be able to take q
her to the unpleasant house in the una
pleasant block where the dentist lived.
Polly hesitated only a moment. Then
she turned down toward the station, and
presently she got on the car and quietly
took her seat as far from the door as pos
sible. She was one of the first persons
on board. but soon the car began to fill
up, and in u moment it moved out of the
station. 1t was a comfortable seat in
which Polly sat, and she had been ke~tl
awake the night before by her toothachs
SO that she felt pretty tired, and she set
tied down to enjoy the journey.
She was Just feeling very comfortable,
indeed, and congratulating herself on her
narrow escape from the dentist when she
suddenly saw directly in front of her
huge and fearsome beast who was deter
mined to sit down in the seat beside her.
Polly FASTENED to inform the
Snimal that there was not really enough