TEETHING"Tom" was a bad baby, from the very beginning
of his usurpation. He would cry for nothing; he would burst into storms
of devilish temper without notice, and let go scream after scream and
squall after squall, then climax the thing with "holding his breath"--
that frightful specialty of the teething nursling, in the throes of which
the creature exhausts its lungs, then is convulsed with noiseless squirmings
and twistings and kickings in the effort to get its breath, while the
lips turn blue and the mouth stands wide and rigid, offering for inspection
one wee tooth set in the lower rim of a hoop of red gums; and when the
appalling stillness has endured until one is sure the lost breath will
never return, a nurse comes flying, and dashes water in the child`s face,
and--presto! the lungs fill, and instantly discharge a shriek, or a yell,
or a howl which bursts the listening ear and surprises the owner of it
into saying words which would not go well with a halo if he had one. Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principle one
was that they escaped teething. |
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