Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work

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So she dressed herself and walked the floor, with the persistent ache as

an intimate companion.

She tried to find a cavity in the tooth, but it seemed perfectly sound.

Evidently she had caught cold and the wicked molar was signaling the

fact.

To be patient under the torture of a toothache was a virtue Patsy did

not possess. Louise and Beth, to whom she appealed, were sorry for her,

but could not relieve the pain. After breakfast Uncle John ordered her

to drive to town and see a dentist.

"Have it pulled, or filled, or something," he said. "The dentist will

know what to do."

So James drove Patsy to town, where they arrived about nine o'clock this

Monday morning. The only dentist at Elmwood was Dr. Squiers, so the girl

ran up the flight of stairs to his office, which was located over the

hardware store.

The pain had eased on the journey, and now the thought of having the

offending tooth pulled was weighing heavily upon Patsy's mind. The door

of Dr. Squiers's office stood ajar, and she hesitated whether to enter

or not.

The dentist's reception room was divided from his operating room by a

thin wooden partition, and as Patsy was deciding whether to employ Dr.

Squiers's services or not she heard high words coming from behind the

partition, and the voice was that of the Honorable Erastus Hopkins.

Softly she slid into the outer room and sank into a chair.

"But you're the clerk of the election, Squiers; you can't deny that,"

Hopkins was saying in a blustering, imperious voice.

"That's true enough," answered the dentist, more calmly.

"Then you've got the registration books in your possession."

"I admit that," was the reply. "But you're asking me to incriminate

myself, 'Rast. If the thing was discovered it would mean prison for both

of us."

"Fiddlesticks!" cried the irascible Hopkins. "These things are done

every day, and no one's the wiser for it. It's merely a part of the

political game."

"I'm afraid, 'Rast," said Dr. Squiers. "Honest Injun, I'm afraid."

"What are you 'fraid of?

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