Kingsham Road ran along the front perimeter of the High School for Boys. To the left hand side of the school a gated road led to the playground and a car park used by the teaching staff. The main door of the school was reached through a narrower gate leading onto a gravel path between the front lawns of the school. Almost nobody other than the head mistress, Miss Elsa Svenson, came into the school that way.
The two windows of Miss Svenson’s spacious study looked out across the front lawns, as did the adjacent single window of the smaller office of Miss Prendergast, the school secretary. The two rooms were connected internally by a strange arrangement of back-to-back doors that opened outwards so that Miss Svenson could bolt her door to be assured of privacy.
It was ten to four and the school day was ending, a boy stood waiting outside the exterior door to the headmistress’s study. Miss Svenson was out but Miss Prendergast was in her office studying a file studiously and inwardly feeling a sense of keen anticipation. As requested, she had just readied the head mistress’s study for a “disciplinary interview” and assumed that the boy standing in the corridor was the object of these preparations.
The outcome of these interviews was not certain because Miss Svenson had a capricious mind and could be unexpectedly merciful, but more often than not they did end with a caning.
Miss Prendergast had put the boy’s personal file on Miss Svenson’s desk and pulled out the low junior school desk that was normally parked against a wall and placed it under the clock a pace away from the wall. Many boys had turned to face that clock, then been instructed to bend over the desk and grip its back legs.
Next had come the task she enjoyed the most, unlocking the corner cupboard and taking out the cane and punishment book. She had carefully placed the punishment book on Miss Svenson’s desk open at the most recent page and couldn’t help herself reading the most recent entries: date, name, offence, number of strokes administered and the initials of the headmistress and a witness to the punishment. She had stood the cane in its place out of sight by the bookcase. Last of all she had checked that there was ink in Miss Svenson’s fountain pen and placed the along the spine of the open punishment book so that it was to hand if needed.
Miss Prendergast had then gone back to her office through the back-to-back doors carefully closing the study door but leaving her own door ajar so that she had the best chance of hearing whatever happened.
After five minutes the sound of Miss Svenson’s footsteps could be heard crunching on the gravel footpath, the front door opened and closed. There was a brief conversation in the corridor and the boy went into the study with Miss Svenson. Miss Prendergast sat straining to hear but she could not make out what was being said. She was taken by surprise when the back-to-back doors were suddenly opened and Miss Svenson entered her office.
“Miss Prendergast, may I ask a favour of you. I am afraid that I need to cane a boy and unfortunately the boy’s form master is not available to witness the punishment. I wonder if you would be willing to stand in? It’s quite simple you simply observe to ensure that the punishment is recorded accurately in the punishment book –but do say “no” if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Miss Prendergast said “yes” and worried that she might have said it a little too enthusiastically.
Miss Prendergast followed the headmistress into the study where the boy was waiting nervously. Miss Svenson picked up the cane, faced the boy and flexed it thoughtfully, “You know why exactly why I am going to cane you. It would have six strokes but you did at least own up, so your punishment is four strokes. I am sure that you don’t think yourself lucky but you ought to!”. Miss Prendergast watched Miss Svenson and the boy with rapt fascination. “Face the clock and bend over the desk”. The boy obeyed.
Miss Prendergast heard the swish of the cane and was surprised by how loud was the sound of its impact on the boy’s tightly stretched trousers. In turn, the boy appeared to be surprised by how much the impact hurt; his back arched and he hung on to the legs of the desk. Miss Svenson proceeded with a steady rhythm –she did not make the boy wait unduly between strokes but neither was she hurried. Each stroke was given with full measure. The boy cowered before the second and third strokes but the desk held him in place. After the third stroke he seemed relieved that the end was in sight and tried to compose himself by stretching bravely over the desk. The fourth stroke clearly hurt even more than those that preceded it and he yelped loudly.
Miss Svenson put her hand on the small of the boy’s back and said “Stay down”, then she talked to the boy by turns chiding him for his bad behaviour and then telling him that she valued his honesty in owning up and that he had taken his punishment well. When she allowed him to stand up his eyes were red but he had regained his composure. He was sent to wash his face and then go home.
“Now Miss Prendergast, let’s make an entry in the punishment book, please would you witness that four strokes were given; I hope that you didn’t find that too disturbing. Most boys’ behaviour is improved by a few sharp taps on the bottom with the cane”. As Miss Prendergast wrote her initials in the book using Miss Svenson’s fountain pen, she thought to herself that she had never had a better day at work and was flushed with pleasure as she returned to her office.
There was a spring in her step as she locked her office door and walked to the bus stop to catch the bus home. Sitting upstairs on the bus, the details of the caning ran through Miss Prendergast’s mind like scenes from a favourite movie.