|
|
|
GEORGE
MACKAY BROWN
Pictures in the Cave
short stories for age 10+
| Sometimes
a demon entered into Mr. Prosser and he would lash out right and left
with 'the strap' he kept on his desk. It lay coiled there most of
the time like a sleeping snake. The strap was a length of thick
leather split into a forked tongue at one end. When Mr. Prosser
wielded it the venom and rage fell on the open outstretched palm of the
culprit's hand. If you were late for school you would be
'strapped'. If you made some awful mistake in arithmetic; if
you whispered to your class neighbour; if you spilled ink on the
floor; if you were caught exchanging cigarette cards under the
desk; if some sneak like Willie Tarbreck reported you for saying a
'bad-word' in the playground; above all if you hadn't done your
homework, the coiled snake was aroused from its desk-sleep. The
old islanders had a good name for this ancient intrument of punishment -
they called it the 'tawse'. © GMB 1997 from The Truant |
|
|
|
| Reviews These stories 'shine with northern light, like everything their author does.' Jill Paton Walsh The Guardian |
