childish misdemeanours. Whether this would be the case with poor "Rother," we had not the opportunity of knowing, owing to our early departure.
Whilst serving as hospital orderly he had picked up some medical skill, and told us that he intended, when released, to turn it to account by following the trade of a dentist. In this he would then have been troubled with no competition but secure of an extensive practice, that is, if he knew how to supply false teeth, for, as far as tooth drawing is concerned, the dry climate pretty well supersedes the need of pincers and forceps by causing the teeth to drop out even though undecayed. It is sadly frequent to meet with comparatively young persons who have lost all their front teeth, and yet the profession of manufacturing dentist is scarcely represented in the colony, and if, now and then, a travelling one appears, forthwith a rush is made by old and young to obtain his services.
The most skilful of these itinerant dentists was a French Colonel of Zouaves, who had been so severely wounded, in winning his many decorations, that he could attain a moderate degree of health only by constant change of scene, and paid his expenses in journeying over the world by practising dentistry as he went along. The deplorable demand for an artificial supply of what the climate had removed, was a circumstance as lucky to himself as his accidental landing was to the inhabitants of Western Australia, and he carried off a rich harvest in fees, together with the pleasant consciousness of having retrieved to many youthful faces their lost good looks.
There is an old French saying that with fine eyes no one is thoroughly ugly and with bad teeth no one is completely
