had heard about all my life in New England, but
had never much believed in.

After a few weeks, Ellen was one evening seized with a dreadful
toothache, which grew so severe that she declared she could not endure
it another hour: she must have the tooth out. "Was there a dentist in
the place?"

I looked at Jack: he looked at me: Ellen groaned with pain.

"Why, yes! of course there is," said this man for emergencies; "Fisher
takes out teeth, he told me so the other day."

Now I did not believe that Fisher knew any more about extracting teeth
than I did myself, but I breathed a prayer to the Recording Angel, and
said naught.

"I'll go get Fisher," said Jack.

Now Fisher was the steamboat agent. He stood six feet in his stockings,
had a powerful physique and a determined eye. Men in those countries had
to be determined; for if they once lost their nerve, Heaven save them.
Fisher had handsome black eyes.

When they came in, I said: "Can you attend to this business, Mr.
Fisher?"

"I think so," he replied, quietly. "The Quartermaster says he has some
forceps."

I gasped. Jack, who had left the room, now appeared, a box of
instruments in his hand, his eyes shining with joy and triumph.

Fisher took the box, and scanned it. "I guess they'll do," said he.

So we placed Ellen in a chair, a stiff barrack chair, with a raw-hide
seat, and no arms.

It was evening.

"Mattie, you must hold the candle," said Jack. "I'll hold Ellen, and,
Fisher, you pull the tooth."

So I lighted the candle, and held it, while Ellen tried, by its
flickering light, to show Fisher the tooth that ached.

Fisher looked again at the box of instruments. "Why," said he, "these
are lower jaw rollers, the kind used a hundred years ago; and her tooth
is an upper jaw."

"Never mind," answered the Lieutenant, "the instruments are all right.
Fisher, you can get the tooth out, that's all you want, isn't it?"

The Lieutenant was impatient; and besides he did not wish any slur cast
upon his precious instruments.

So Fisher took up the forceps, and clattered around amongst Ellen's
sound white teeth. His hand shook, great beads of perspiration gathered
on his face, and I perceived a very strong odor of Cocomonga wine. He
had evidently braced for the occasion.

It was, however, too late to protest. He fastened onto a molar, and with
the lion's strength which lay in his gigantic frame, he wrenched it out.

Ellen put up her hand and felt the place