I found no rest, no peace. The weather did not rest, either; it was lively.
The wind howled and sang in its own way; my teeth also began to be lively,
and they hummed and sang in their way. An awful toothache was coming
on.
There was a draft from the window. The moon shone in upon the floor;
the light came and went as the clouds came and went in the stormy weather.
There was a restless change of light and shadow, but at last the shadow on
the floor began to take shape. I stared at the moving form and felt an icy-
cold wind against my face.
On the floor sat a figure, thin and long, like something a child would
draw with a pencil on a slate, something supposed to look like a person, a
single thin line forming the body, another two lines the arms, each leg being
but a single line, and the head having a polygonal shape.
The figure soon became more distinct; it had a very thin, very fine sort of
cloth draped around it, clearly showing that the figure was that of a female.
I heard a buzzing sound. Was it she or the wind which was buzzing like a
hornet through the crack in the pane?
No, it was she, Madam Toothache herself! Her terrible highness, Satania
Infernalis! God deliver and preserve us from her!
“It is good to be here!” she buzzed. “These are nice quarters - mossy
ground, fenny ground! Gnats have been buzzing around here, with poison in
their stings; and now I am here with such a sting. It must be sharpened on
human teeth. Those belonging to the fellow in bed here shine so brightly.
They have defied sweet and sour things, heat and cold, nutshells and plum
stones; but I shall shake them, make them quake, feed their roots with
drafty winds, and give them cold feet!”
That was a frightening speech! She was a terrible visitor!
“So you are a poet!” she said. “Well, I'll make you well versed in all the
poetry of toothache! I'll thrust iron and steel into your body! I'll seize all the
fibers of your nerves!”
