Dentist, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket.

Actually I only wanted to have my tartar removed, though I had my suspicions: He's sure to find something. They always find something.

The hands of the clock pointed to one-thirty the other day and my own, more flaccid than vermicelli, dangled inertly beside the dental chair as Dr. Yankwich shoved aside his drill, fired alternate round of compressed air and raspberry shrub down my throat, and straightened up. "There-wasn't it a breeze?" he asked gaily.

Dentistry is more impressive in town-what the rural man calls cleaning the teeth is called "prophylaxis" in New York.