The third scene revealed an office. On a table lay a number of
small instruments, a lot of loose teeth, also a couple of full
sets. A lady was seated in a chair, and beside her stood a
gentleman(?) holding aloft in one hand a pair of forceps, in which
there gleamed a single tooth, while with the other he extended a
glass of water to his patient, remarking in a suave, professional
tone:
"It is all over, madam--a very successful operation. Rinse your
mouth, please, and then we will look at the others," whereupon the
curtain fell.
The fourth scene showed the same room in which the first act had
been given. In a low rocker sat a spinster of uncertain age, very
prim as to attitude and attire, her face partially concealed by a
profusion of corkscrew curls that dangled from her temples. She
appeared to be absorbed in reading, while there were piles of
books on the table at her side, on chairs, and were also strewn
promiscuously about the floor.
Presently a colored servant entered the room. A spotless kerchief
was folded about her expansive shoulders; a bright red bandanna
was coiled around her woolly head, and a long, blue and white
checked apron was tied about her ample waist.
She was a typical, full-blooded negress, and shuffled into the
room in true darky style, but with signs of distress and one black
hand covering her right eye.
"Well, Dinah, is anything wanted?" demanded the spinster, but
without glancing up from her book.
"Y'sm, honey; I'se done got sumpin' in m' eye. I has sho'."
"Come here and let me look at it," said her mistress, reluctantly
laying her book aside and taking a pencil from the table.
Dinah knelt before the woman, who made a careful examination of
the suffering member.
"I see it!" she said; "don't move and I'll get it. There!"--
carefully removing something with a corner of her immaculate
handkerchief--"see?"
"Y'sm; thank'e, Miss Julia. Yah! yah! what a li'l spec to make
such a rumpus! Looks like de Bible 'mote,' but, golly! it done
feel mo' like de 'beam.' Yah! yah! yah!" laughed the negress,
revealing two rows of dazzling teeth to an appreciative audience
as she laboriously struggled to her feet.
"Feel all right now, aunty?" queried the spinster, as she
carefully refolded her handkerchief.
"Y'sm, y'sm; I'm obleeg'd to 'e, Miss Julia. Lor'!" rubbing her
knees and groaning, "de rumatism do work de mischief wi' dese yere
po' ole bones." But Miss Julia had again become absorbed in her
book and, apparently, did not hear.
"Got another new book, Miss Julia?" queried Dinah, after watching
her mistress in silence for a moment.
"No, Dinah," replied the spinster, lifting a beatific glance and
smile to the ceiling, "I am still engaged with my 'Philosophical,
Psychological and Theosophical Research.'"
"Lor'!" and Dinah rolled her eyes with an awe-struck look over the
audience. "I 'spec' some day, honey, you's so uplifted, you'll go
soarin' up inter de clouds and outer sight, straight 'ter kingdom
come--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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