the dentist

i. why ruth was afraid

“oh, dear!” sobbed ruth. “o—h, dear!” she was sitting in her little rocking-chair in the living-room.

“why, what’s the matter?” asked wallace, coming in to look for his books. “are you hurt?”

“no;” ruth shook her head.

[188]

“well, then, what is it?”

“oh, wallace, i am so afraid i’m going to be hurt. mother says there is a dark spot on one of my teeth. she is getting ready to take me to doctor harrison’s. i have never had a tooth filled.”

“well, of all the silly things i ever heard of,” exclaimed wallace, “that’s the silliest! what makes you think the dentist will hurt you?”

ruth looked up in surprise.

“haven’t you ever heard the boys and girls talk of how they were hurt when they had teeth filled?” she asked.

“oh, i have heard some boys talk,” wallace admitted; “but they were boys who never cleaned their teeth—”

“and who did not see a dentist until they had a toothache,” added mrs. duwell, overhearing wallace’s remark as she entered the room.

“what, crying?” she asked, noticing ruth’s swollen eye-lids. “why, my dear little girl, the dentist is one of your best friends.”

“i guess some of the girls and boys would like him better if he didn’t hurt them so much, mother,” said ruth.

“that isn’t the dentist’s fault, children,” said mrs. duwell. “if boys and girls had their teeth[189] examined once or twice a year, the dentist would catch the trouble in time and save them much pain.”

“i don’t suppose dentists ever want to hurt anyone,” ruth said.

“no, indeed. i think they are very kind to be willing to do so in order to save teeth. it is dreadful to have bad teeth. nothing tastes just right; and worse than that, bad teeth mean bad health. good teeth are a grist mill to grind our food. without good teeth we cannot have good health.”

“that is so,” said wallace. “even horses aren’t worth much after their teeth are gone.”

“why can’t they wear false ones?” asked ruth with such seriousness that wallace burst out laughing.

“i wish they could, poor things,” said her mother; “but come, dear, we must start.”

ruth in dentist's chair; dentist beside her

[190]

ii. at the dentist’s

“ah, here is a little girl whose mouth looks as though she brushed her teeth regularly,” said doctor harrison, as he raised the big comfortable arm chair in which ruth was sitting.

“she certainly is good about that, doctor,” said mrs. duwell.

“even so,” said the doctor, “i think i shall give her one of my little picture cards.”

ruth looked so pleased that he handed her two.

“one is for wallace,” ruth said.

“that picture is to remind forgetful children,” said the doctor. “now let us look at the twenty-odd pearls in your mouth, little girl.”

the road to health

“oh, wallace, doctor harrison didn’t hurt me a bit,” cried ruth, running into the living-room after they had reached home. “he said that he didn’t often hurt people who came to him in time. here is a card, he gave me for you.”

“thank you,” said wallace, looking at the card. “oh, it’s to remind me to brush my teeth. i wonder if he thought i needed it.”

“no, doctor harrison didn’t say that, wallace; but he did say that we wouldn’t want to[191] eat anything with dirty hands, and that really dirty teeth are worse than dirty hands.”

questions

do you have your teeth examined once or twice a year?

the dentist is one of your best friends. why?

do you think that the people in the united states would be as well as they are, if there were no dentists? why not?

suppose you had a toothache and there was no dentist to whom you could go. what would happen?

aren’t you glad that there are men who have studied, so that they can help you take care of your teeth?

suppose we children had to live

without the help of others—

i mean, suppose we had to grow

without the help of mothers;

suppose there were no groceryman,

no milkman, doctor, baker,

no tailor who could make our coats,

and there were no dressmaker;

suppose no people ever did

the things that they could do

to help each other in this world—

i wouldn’t want to live, would you?