A Mother's Error

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 12, 1879

HARRY ENDFORD'S usually bright, handsome face was disfigured by having his cheek terribly swollen. All night he had suffered intensely with a defective tooth, and the camphor and creosote his mother had applied brought no relief.

"Harry," said Mrs. Endford, pityingly, "I must take you to Dr. Hilton. He will stop the pain at once."

"O, dear! no, mamma," exclaimed Harry, quickly; "I don't want to go the dentist's. He'll pull my tooth, I know he will."

"No, he shan't, Harry; he will cure it right off."

After pondering, Harry decided to accompany his mother to the dentist's. He was nearly mad with pain, and was willing to accept any possibility of relief. Having gained her son's consent, Mrs. Endford wrote the following:—

DR. HILTON: I shall bring my son, Harry, to your office. He has an ulcerated tooth, which I am sure will have to be extracted. Please resort to a little artifice to hide your intention. He is a nervous, timid boy, and thereby will be spared the dread which would be to him more than pain. Very truly yours, E. A. ENDFORD.

A little later Harry and his mother were inside the dentist's office. He examined the tooth carefully.

"It is a very bad tooth," he said.

"You are going to pull it?" questioned Harry, giving his face a quick, searching glance.

"I will put something on it that will cause the pain entirely to cease in a short time," replied Dr. Hilton, evasively.

He poured a few drops of a dark liquid from a bottle on a bit of cotton, and taking it up with his forceps, he said to Harry:

"Open your mouth wide, now, and let me lay this on the tooth."

Harry opened his mouth; but in an instant the treacherous forceps had tight hold of his tooth, and it was extracted and in Dr. Hilton's hand before he had the slightest suspicion of his intention.

"What! you haven't pulled it out?" said Harry, greatly astonished.

"Yes, I have. You didn't feel it much, did you?"

"You have cheated me!" returned Harry, with an angry, flushed face. "You told me you were going to put something on to stop the pain."

"I did. These forceps are the truest pain killer I know," laughed the dentist.

"Well, it's all over now," said Mrs. Endford, "and the tooth will never ache again. Are you not glad?"

Tears sprang into Harry's eyes.

"You knew all about it, mother," said Harry, bitterly. "You knew Dr. Hilton was going to pull my tooth when you brought me here. You are always cheating me, you are; but you can't do it many more times. I've got you learned," defiantly.

Who was it Harry so well understood? His mother, to whom he owed his existence, and whose tender, loving care he constantly received. And yet her influence over his young, pliant mind was nearly gone. Why? Because again and again in the management of her son she had resorted to artifice and dissimulation.

Poor Harry! There was a rankling wound in his heart. Through deception he had been saved the fear he would have experienced from having the tooth extracted; but poison and bitterness had sprung up in his heart far exceeding physical pain. His moral nature had received a lasting blight.

Mothers, my story is true. If you wish to be loved and honored by your children, deal honestly by them. Never deceive them, or tell the fractional part of a lie.—Zion's Herald.