This has been salvaged from the wreck of a much longer story that never
got completed.

It is edgy because it concerns the callous beating of children.

It reflects my Scottish background. Oh, and it is meant to be ironic.

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Some years ago I had a part time job at the Millstone Orphanage. Before
I started I was regarded by my pupils as a fairly good belter. After a
few months at Millstone I was the terror of my regular school. What I
had thought of as a fairly good belting was shrugged off by the kids
there as almost a joke.  After a few days the teacher whom I was
relieving took pity on me.  She stayed on one night selflessly giving
up her own time to rescue me.  She set the class an essay to keep them
occupied and then called them up one at a time for a belting.  She
would give them three on each hand, then I would give them three on
each hand.  I could see how hers hurt, and mine did much less.  She
began to whisper brief instructions.  Start with the tawse just a
little further back.  Use a bit more force with the wrist at impact.
Just watch me and copy my stance. After I while I could sense that I
was doing better.  By the time we dealt with the last few, my strokes
were getting exactly the same reaction as hers.  She called out the
first ten a second time.  I gave them two more on each hand, just so as
to even things up for my earlier negligence.  Mrs. Armstrong just stood
and smiled at me as I did so.

It was only when she dismissed the class and congratulated me on my
improvement that I realised quite how considerate she had been.  She
had not only stayed throughout the length of my class but for almost an
hour after, just so as to give me the full benefit of her experience. 
The children had missed their supper and would all have gone to bed a
little hungry, but that was a very small price to pay.

I showed something of my gratitude, I hope, by sitting up late into the
night marking the childrens essays. I had the scripts marked and
returned to Mrs. Armstrong before she started classes the following
day.  She could return them straight away and act on the neat SB Figure
I had added to the end of each one.  That is a standard way of marking
at the Millstone.  SB stands for Suggested Belting.  It is only a
suggestion  as the marks are passed to the regular teacher who can vary
the award  usually upwards.  As it happens, being new I slightly
misunderstood the system.  I assumed the SB was to be the total figure,
but Mrs. Armstrong took it to be the number for each hand. But that too
was all to the good, in the end.  The kids were told repeatedly how
appalling their work must have been, and how much it shocked the new
teacher.  So, you see, they all knew, or thought, that this special
belting was my doing.  It increased their respect for me, I can tell
you.