Ethan Allen
A Vermont Legend
retold by
S.E. Schlosser
Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, who defeated the British at Fort Ticonderoga, was known as a gruff-mannered, hard-drinking man. But Ethan Allen had a gallant streak which would exhibit itself in unexpected ways.
Once, when visiting with one of his friends, who was a dentist, a woman came in with a terrible toothache. The dentist took a look at the tooth and told the woman it would have to be pulled. But the woman was terrified by the thought of having her tooth pulled, especially when she saw the tools the dentist was preparing for the extraction. Ethan Allen gently encouraged the suffering woman to have the work done, but she was utterly panicked by the idea, and refused.
"Madame," Ethan Allen said at last, "I will prove to you that there is nothing to fear."
Ethan Allen sat down in the dentist's chair and instructed his friend to remove a tooth. So the dentist removed one of Ethan Allen's teeth while the woman watched. Then Ethan Allen turned to the woman and said: "There, you see. I didn't feel it at all."
Thus reassured, the woman proceeded to have her tooth extracted, while Ethan Allen stood by and suffered in silence!
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