ian become at
that time. He was over six feet high, though not quite sixteen years of
age, with a breadth of shoulder and depth of chest that would have
befitted a man of six-and-twenty. He had no beard, but he possessed a
deep bass voice, which more than satisfied John Adams's oft-expressed
wish of earlier days to hear the "sound of a man."

"Toc," said Adams, holding his jaw with one hand and the pincers in the
other, "I've got a most astoundin' fit o' the toothache, and _must_ git
rid o' this grinder; but it's an awful one to hold on. I've tried it
three times myself wi' them pincers, an' my old 'ooman has tried it wi'
this here cable--once with her fist an' once wi' the door as a sort o'
capstan; but it's still hard an' fast, like the sheet-anchor of a
seventy-four. Now, Toc, my lad, you're a stout young chap for your age.
Just you take them pincers, lay hold o' the rascally thing, an' haul
him out. Don't be afeared. He _must_ come if you only heave with a
will."

"What, father, do you mean that I'm to lay hold o' that tooth wi' them
pincers an' wrench it bodily out of your head?"

"That's just about what I do mean, Toc," returned Adams, with a grim
smile. "Moreover, I want you to make no bungle of it. Don't let your
narves come into play. Just take a grip like a brave man, heave away
wi' the force of a windlass, an' don't stop for my yellin'."

Thus adjured, Thursday October took the pincers, and gazed with a look
of great anxiety into the cavernous mouth that Adams opened to his view.

"Which one is it, father, asked Toc," rolling up his shirt sleeves to
the shoulder and displaying arms worthy of Vulcan.

"Man alive! don't you see it? The one furthest aft, with a black hole
in it big enough a'most to stuff my George into."

Thursday applied the pincers gently. Adams, unable to use clear speech
in the circumstances, said chokingly, "'At's 'e un--'ool away!" which,
interpreted, is, "That's the one--pull away."

Toc pulled, Adams roared, the children quaked, and the pincers slipped.

"Oh, Toc, Toc!" cried Adams, with a remonstrative look, such as martyrs
are said to give when their heads are not properly cut off; "is that all
you can do with your big strong arms? Fie, man, fie!"

This disparaging reference to his strength put poor Thursday on his
mettle.

"I'll try again, father," he said.

"Well, do; an' see you make a better job of it this time."

The powerful youth got hold of the tooth