ir maladies were few and seldom fatal.

John Adams himself had the constitution of a horse. Nevertheless, he
was troubled now and then with a bad tooth, and once had a regular
attack of raging toothache. As none of the people had ever even heard
of this malady, they were much alarmed and not a little solemnised by
its effects on their chief.

Walking up and down the floor of his house, holding his afflicted jaw
with both hands, the poor man endeavoured to endure it with fortitude;
but when the quivering nerve began, as it were, to dance a hornpipe
inside of his tooth, irrepressible groans burst from him and awed the
community.

"Is it _very_ bad, John?" asked his sympathetic wife, who was cleaning
up the house at the time.

"Ho-o-o-rible!" answered John.

"I'm _very_ sorry, John," said the wife.

"Oh-o-o-o-oh!" groaned the husband.

When it became known in the village that Adams was suffering from some
mysterious complaint that nearly drove him mad, two or three of the
children, unable to restrain their curiosity, ran to his house and
peeped in at the open door and windows. The sufferer either disregarded
or did not see them.

In a few minutes the poor man's steps became more frantic, and another
groan burst from him. Then he stopped in the middle of the room,
uttered a deep growl, and stamped.

At this the heads of the peeping children disappeared. They gazed at
each other in solemn wonder. They had never seen the like of this
before. To stamp on the floor without an apparent reason, and without
being done in fun, was beyond their comprehension.

"Where's the tool-box, lass?" gasped Adams suddenly.

His helpmate brought to him an old hand-box for nails and small tools,
which had once done service in the _Bounty_.

With eager haste Adams selected a pair of pincers, and, seizing his
tooth therewith, he began to twist.

At the same time his features began to screw up into an expression of
agony.

"Howgh!" he exclaimed, between a gasp and a short roar, as the pincers
slipped. And no wonder, for it was a three-fanged grinder of the
largest size, situate in the remote backwoods of the under jaw.

He tried again, and again failed. Then a third time, and then
discovered that, up to a certain point, his will was free to act, but
that beyond that point, the agony was so intense that the muscles of the
hand and arm refused to act responsive to the will. In other
circumstances he might have moralised