as away, and he had not forgotten the
mean things they had said about him when he returned to be nursed
through a spell of "too much liquor."

"Yo' hain' never gwine run no mo', is yo', doc?"

"I can't say, Brad."

"Brad, didn't you hear somebody holler outside? Go out and see who it
is." Brad opened the door.

"Is the doc in thar?"

"Yes, sah, cum in."

A tall, double-jointed farm-hand came blustering into the room, his face
covered with a yarn comforter. He slowly unwound the rag and brought to
view the side of his face, swollen to a frightful size.

"Done busted me wide open; kin you pull her, doc?"

The old doctor examined the tooth and said, "You've got a tooth like a
hoss--fix the chair in the back room, Brad."

Brad brought a washpan and placed it beside the chair. Doctor Hissong
opened a drawer and brought forth an instrument that resembled a
cant-hook, one of those tools used in overturning logs. This tooth
extractor had a handle about six inches long, and a sort of steel hook
on the end, and it would draw the tooth, if the jawbone did not break.

The suffering patient looked on with an expression on his face anything
but pleasant.

"Looks like fixin' fer hog-killin', doc!"

"Well, I've known 'em to die under it," complacently said the old doctor
as he shuffled about. "Give him a drink, Brad, and put him in the
chair."

The patient stretched his long legs and rested his feet on a soap box.

"Fifty cents," said the doctor, as he approached with his instrument in
his hand.

"Hafter have it beforehand, doc?"

"Yes, sir, that's my rule, for nine cases out of ten are so mad when I
get through that they won't pay."

The money paid, the doctor carefully leaned over and fitted the hook
over the tooth.

"Clinch him, Shawn!"

"O-r-r-r-r-r-wow! leggo! leggo!"

"Choke him, Brad!"

All four of them were on the floor, the farm-hand had smashed the
wash-stand with his feet, and the water pitcher had gone with the ruins.

"Hold his feet, Shawn!"

Shawn jumped straddle-ways on the legs, and the old doctor made another
pull.

"H-l-l-u-p! H-e-l-l-l-u-p!"

Rising with the strength of a desperate man, the farmer dragged all of
them into the front room, but the old doctor did not lose his hold on
the tooth. The last remaining glass in the bookcase was smashed and the
lower sash of the front window caved in.

"Throw him, Brad!"

The tooth-key slipped off and the farmer let out a yell and tried to