If you don't do everything I tell you, you will
be slapped on the hand, or somewhere else, with this strap."
He held it up to view. It was eighteen inches long, three inches
broad, heavy, and pliant. The sight of it made Tommy Traddles and
many other little boys and girls good all at once; but Joseph and
Hugh went back to their seats grinning at one another. Mr. Foy had
often talked that way, but it always came to nothing.
Hugh was the hero of the school, or rather the leading villain. In
about two minutes he called out, "Please, sir, Josh Blake is
a-shoving me with his elbow."
"Hugh Boyle, come this way." He came.
"Now, Hugh, I told you that there must be no speaking or reading
aloud. Of course you forgot what I said; you should have put up your
hand."
In the course of the day Hugh received two slaps, then three, then
four. He began to fear the strap as well as to feel it. That was
the beginning of wisdom.
Nancy Toomey was naughty, and was sent into a corner. She was sulky
and rebellious when told to return to her seat. She said, in the
hearing of Tommy Traddles, "The master is a carroty-headed crawler."
It is as well to remark that Philip's hair was red; a man with red
hair is apt to be of a hasty temper, and, as a matter of fact, I had
seen Philip's fist fly out very rapidly on several occasions before
he began to practise the twelve virtues.
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