Jany. 26

Conrad dined with us tonight and after dinner we had some, or in fact almost all the musical men in the force, in the Mess Room, + sang and danced, + handed round coffee + crackers. It was quite a ball, I had not enjoyed myself much all day, nor in truth since last Friday. On Friday afternoon to vary the monotony of this dreary place, I tried the pleasant experience of a jolly good toothache. The same tooth that troubled me and which I had filled about a year ago. I bore it for some time with fortitude, because it gave me something vivid to think about, but it too began to get very monotonous + on Sunday I was very tired of it. On Monday I tried to do something for it + saturating a small bit of cotton wool in Carbolic acid, let it fall down my throat and nearly choked myself, as well as added a severe sore throat to my other pleasures. Finally disgusted with everything I took the instrument which we have, which combines the principle of the lumberman’s lever with the appearance of that thing that pianos are tuned with, and for an hour I did my very best to pull that tooth out, but I could not. However it moved slightly, and although my face was very sore and my throat nearly boiled, I found that the tooth had ceased aching. So I went and enjoyed myself.