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“What a splendid bottom you have got ; so plump and so firm . I
thought I had a big bottom, but yours is
far bigger in every way. ” The
governess smiled , and looked very much pleased. “Yes. I have
got a big bottom, ” she remarked complacently . ”My husband used to admire
it very much.”
“Well, it is worthy of admiration, ” said
Frances.”I believe men like women to have large bottoms. But talking of
bottoms, puts me in
mind of whipping. I suppose, during the years you have been a
governess, you have
birched a good many little bottoms.”
“Yes, many a one. I have birched girls up to seventeen years of
age.”
Frances laughed, then she asked, in the
most innocent way:
“Were you ever birched when you were a girl?”
“Yes, very often.”
“Were you really” said Frances, as if she were much
astonished.
“At a boarding-school, I suppose?”
“I never was at a boarding-school I got all my birching at
home. I will tell
you. My mother died when I was ten years old, and I was brought up, and
educated entirely by my father. He was a
stern, hard man; and whenever I failed in my lessons, or committed an
offences, he used to
lay me across a chair, bare my
bottom, and birch me severely. He kept me under discipline until I was
seventeen years of age; and he
sometimes flogged me till the blood came.”
“But I was a strong. girl, and could
take an ordinary birching with considerable fortitude. Of course, I used
to cry and writhe, but I never
screamed unless he birched me hard enough to draw blood. He used to
whip me with a full-sized birch rod; a very different thing to the little
toy you use when you whip the children.”
“Well,” said
Frances, smiling, “toy as it is, I don’t think you could bear a dozen
smart cuts of it, without crying out.”
“Oh, I’m sure I could,” said Miss Martin, with a little
laugh.
“I’ll bet you a dozen pairs of gloves to one
pair, that you
don’t take a dozen cuts in perfect silence,” said Frances,
laughing.
“I’ll take the bet. I want some gloves, and I am
sure to win them. Get out the toy,” said the governess, also
laughing. |