You shall smart for all three,
A three-fold example
Your bottom shall be."
Now his comrades they took him,
Each grasping a hand,
And gaily accomplished
The Master's command.
They swayed down his body,
Rolled up his shirt-tail,
And poised up his buttocks,
That a stroke mightn't fail.
Then they tied down his legs,
That the skin might draw tight,
That each lash might draw blood
To the Master's delight;
Then they twitched at his hair,
And chucked up his chin,
And cried out, "Good Master!
It's time to begin."
Now Arthur's and Redgy's
Own bottoms were sore,
But they knew that Frank Fane's
Would be terrible more.
And each was too glad
To forget his own grief,
In seeing Frank's flesh
In the state of raw beef.
Said Arthur to Redgy,
"We've often been stripped,
All three of us together,
And jollily whipped;
But now we're both masters,
And, crickey! it's fun,
To see Frank Fane catching
Three floggings in one."
The first was three dozen,
Laid in with a will,
"Just enough," quoth the Master,
"For a boy in the bill."
Then he sat down and rested
His arm for awhile
And looked at his work,
With a grim kind of smile.
Then he gave a fresh sentence—
"So much for the Dunce!
Now five dozen for the Truant,
But not all at once.
This rod is all splintered,
Go fetch me two more;