He had many winning ways. I got quite attached to him, and never regretted having taken him under my care. Of course he was not faultless. He was indolent, he had a hasty temper, he liked having his own way, he was some-tunes inclined to be disobedient, and he was rather disposed to treat the servants-the female ones especially-in an imperious way. This trait in his character I attributed to his having had to do with native servants in India during the first ten years of his life.
The days slipped away rapidly and uneventfully; I shot, hunted, and occasionally took a run up to town for a night, and so things went on, until the end of October, when I made up my mind to send Frank to school at the beginning of the new year. Not that I wanted to get rid of him, but because I had an old-standing engagement with a couple of friends to go on a yachting trip to the Mediterranean, and we were to start early in January.
I did not tell Frank that I was going to send him to school, as I knew the idea would make him miserable, and I did not want to have him moping about the house. I had lately been thinking a good deal about his future, and it struck me that I was not acting rightly in allowing him to run wild about the place as he had hitherto been doing. I remembered the old saying about “idle hands and mischief,” so I determined to set him some lessons which would keep him employed for part of each day. I at once looked up a number of my old schoolbooks, and when he had had his lunch, I told him that in future I wished him to study every day for a few hours, and I also informed him that I would set him various lessons and exercises, and that I would examine him upon them in the evening when I was at home.
He looked surprised and rather dejected on hearing my announcement, but said he would learn any lessons I chose to set him.
Next morning, before going out hunting, I marked various tasks for him, and sent him into the library to study them, telling him that I expected him to stick to his work, and not to go out until he had learnt all his lessons. I had a capital run with the hounds, and did not get home until seven o’clock; bat as soon as dinner was over, and I had lit my cigar, I made Frank bring me his books and papers; then I examined him, and looked over his exercises, finding that he had done all his tasks fairly well. Then we chatted, and played draughts until it was time for him to go to bed. Everything went on pretty well for some days, and then I began to notice that he was chafing under the regular routine which I had laid down; and he got so careless in writing his exercises, and he learnt his lessons so imperfectly that I had often to scold him. On these occasions he was always penitent, promising to be more diligent, but in a few days he would again grow idle and careless, and at last became positively disobedient So I came to the conclusion that I should have to adopt severe measures with him; as I did not mean to let him have his own way entirely. I am a bit of a disciplinarian, and I believe in the efficacy of corporal punishment; moreover I think all boys require a flogging occasionally. I was often birched when I was at Eton, and I am sure the punishment was good for me. So one evening, on finding that he had been more than usually idle during the day, I spoke sharply to him, saying: “You have been extremely inattentive to your work of late, and to-day you do not appear to have made an attempt to learn your lessons. I am very angry with you, and if you do not apply yourself more diligently to your tasks, I shall be obliged to flog you.”
He started, turned very red, and gazed at me with a frightened expression on his face, saying: “Oh, I am so sorry to have made you angry! I know I have been very idle lately; but I will work hard in future. I will indeed. Oh, I hope you will never flog me,” he added, fervently.
“That depends on how you go on. If you persist in not learning your lessons, I will certainly give you a flogging with a birch rod,” I said.
He give little shudder, and clasped his fingers tightly together.
“Have you ever been birched?” I asked
The colour deepened in his cheeks, he cast down his eyes, and after a moment’s hesitation replied in a low voice: “No, I have never been birched, but Mrs.”-he checked himself, and did not pronounce the name which had been on the tip of his tongue-then he went on: “One of the ladies at the house where I lived spanked me three times to try and force me to do a certain thing I had refused to do. I told yon that they had ill-treated me.”
I laughed, and said: “Well, I am very much surprised. I thought you had more spirit than to allow yourself to be spanked by a lady. And you say that you are over fourteen years of age?”
His face grew redder, he moved uneasily in his chair, and stammered out: “Oh-you-don’t-understand. I-could-not help-myself. These-were-two-ladies. I-am-not,”-he stopped, and wrung his hands, looking utterly miserable and confused.
I laughed again: “Oh, you need not tell me any more about it,” I said, taking up a book and beginning to read. He also began turning over the leaves of a book, but I noticed the he appeared very ill at ease, and after a short time he bade me “good night,” and went off to bed.
Master Frank was thoroughly frightened by my threatening him with the rod; he had evidently not thought that I would be so determined with him, and for some days afterwards I often noticed him looking at me in a timid sort of way; but in time his fear appeared to wear off, and he began again to give trouble in many ways. He developed a waywardness of conduct, and his temper became very variable; at one time he was lively and talkative, and at another time sulky and depressed; he was often disobedient, and occasionally gave way to fits of passion. I could not make out what had come over him. His behaviour was tiresome, and it annoyed me, and though he was always sorry A after he had misbehaved, I saw that he needed a taste of the birch to bring him to his senses; so I determined to flog him the next time he offended in any way.
Before another week had passed, he had received a birching.
He wrote a very good hand-which I do not-and one morning I wanted a manuscript copied; so I gave it to him, telling him to make a fair copy of it as soon as possible, as I wished to post it in the afternoon. It was not a long job, so I told him to have it done in an hour.
At the end of that time I went to the library expecting to find him there with the copy ready for me, but he was not in the room, nor had he even begun the work, for I saw the manuscript lying on the table beside a blank sheet of foolscap paper. I felt very angry, and resolved to birch him as soon as he made his appearance. I had not got a rod, but there were several birch trees growing in the grounds, so I went out and cut a few long, slender, sappy, green twigs, and soon made a first-rate rod; and, as I swished it in the air to test its flexibility, I said to myself: “Ah! master Francis, this will make your bottom smart.” I went back to the library, put the rod in a drawer, and taking up a novel in which I was interested, I settled myself comfortably in an easy-chair beside the fire, and began to read.
In about an hour’s time Frank came into the room. I put down the book and rose from my seat “Why have you not copied the manuscript?” I said sternly, looking him full in the face, as he stood before me.
“Oh, I couldn’t be bothered,” he replied flippantly. I was very much astonished, as he had never answered me in such a saucy way before.
“You have deliberately disobeyed me, and you have answered me improperly. I am going to birch you,” I said, angrily taking the rod out of the drawer, and holding it up for him to see. He was quite taken aback at the sight of it, and very much frightened; his face became scarlet and he began to tremble.