Note 307 — Chapter X · THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

I will here tell a story of a master barber living at Orleans, named maistre François Louys, who had the honor of pulling a tooth better than any one else, so that on Saturdays many country folks having toothache came to him to have them pulled out, which he did very dexterously with a pelican, and when he had done, threw it on a bench in his shop. Now he had a new servant, Picard, tall and strong, who wanted to pull teeth like his master. It happened that whilst the said François Louys was dining, a villager wanting a tooth pulled, Picard took his master’s instrument and tried to do like him, but instead of taking out the bad tooth, he knocked and tore out three good ones for him, who, feeling great pain and seeing three teeth out of his mouth, began to cry out against Picard, but he, to make him hold his peace, told him not to say a word about it and not to shout so, because if his master came he would make him pay for three teeth instead of one. Now the master, hearing such a noise, came out from table to know the cause of it and the reason of the quarrel, but the poor peasant fearing the threats of Picard and still more after enduring such pain being made to pay a threefold fee by the said Picard, was silent, not daring to reveal to the master this fine piece of work of the said Picard; and thus the poor bumpkin went away, and for one tooth that he had thought to have pulled, he carried away three in his pouch and the one that hurt him in his mouth.”