I felt
a longing to attend it.

"On Wednesday," I went on, speaking hurriedly and wildly, "I have
another appointment, a swimming club, and on Thursday two appointments,
a choral society and a funeral. On Friday I have another funeral.
Saturday is market day. Sunday is washing day. Monday is drying day----"

"Hold on," said the dentist, speaking very firmly. "You come to-morrow
morning: I'll write the engagement for ten o'clock."

I think it must have been hypnotism.

Before I knew it, I had said "Yes."

I went out.

On the street I met a man I knew.

"Have you ever taken gas from a dentist?" I asked.

"Oh, yes," he said; "it's nothing."

Soon after I met another man.

"Have you ever taken gas?" I asked.

"Oh, certainly," he answered, "it's nothing, nothing at all."

Altogether I asked about fifty people that day about gas, and they all
said that it was absolutely nothing. When I said that I was to take it
to-morrow, they showed no concern whatever. I looked in their faces for
traces of anxiety. There weren't any. They all said that it wouldn't
hurt me, that it was nothing.

So then I was glad because I knew that gas was nothing.

It began to seem hardly worth while to keep the appointment. Why go all
the way downtown for such a mere nothing?

But I did go.

I kept the appointment.

What followed was such an absolute nothing that I shouldn't bother to
relate it except for the sake of my friends.

The dentist was there with two assistants. All three had white coats on,
as rigid as naval uniforms.

I forget whether they carried revolvers.

Nothing could exceed their quiet courage. Let me pay them that tribute.

I was laid out in my shroud in a long chair and tied down to it (I think
I was tied down; perhaps I was fastened with nails). This part of it was
a mere nothing. It simply felt like being tied down by three strong men
armed with pinchers.

After that a gas tank and a pump were placed beside me and a set of
rubber tubes fastened tight over my mouth and nose. Even those who have
never taken gas can realize how ridiculously simple this is.

Then they began pumping in gas. The sensation of this part of it I
cannot, unfortunately, recall. It happened that just as they began to
administer the gas, I fell asleep. I don't quite know why. Perhaps I was
overtired. Perhaps it was the simple home charm of the surroundings, the
soft drowsy hum of the gas pump, the twittering of the dentists in the