Twhack! Miss Calliope Havisham brought the rod crashing onto her calfskin bound copy of the Book of Student Discipline. Twhack, Twhack, Twhack! The vibration of the limber hickory made her hand tingle. She couldn't understand it. Never in the years since she had come to the tiny village of Rendon had the pupils been so headstrong, so dismissive of the rules. She must regain order, no matter what. The rules must be followed. "Rule number one," she began for the tenth time... Twhack! The sniggering continued, grew in volume. Twhack, Twhack! The tingling traveled up her arm and suffused through her, stirring a strange spark somewhere in the depths of her womanhood. "Rule numner one, No student shall..." Twhack! Most of them looked at her with amusement, all except Clive. Clive, the intelligent, quiet, one had an odd look of knowing in his heavy lidded eyes. Twhack! Her tongue brushed quickly over her parched lips. Why was it so warm in here? The rules, must remember the rules. They were everything. Twhack! Her bosom heaved against the confining whalebone of her corset. It was no use. They would never listen. And yet, she must continue, even at the cost of her soul. Twhack! From Memoirs of A Country Schoolmistress by Unknown ca. 1820

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken