Buzzing lips, however, were among the seven "deadly sins" under the
regime of Czar Brench. Dropping a book or a slate, wriggling about in
your seat, whispering to a seatmate, sitting idly without seeming to
study and not knowing your lesson reasonably well were other grave
offenses.
Because of the length of the lessons, there were frequently failures in
class; the punishment for that was to stand facing the school, and study
the lesson diligently, feverishly, until you knew it. There were few
afternoons that term when three or four pupils were not out there, madly
studying to avoid remaining after school. For no one knew what would
happen if you were left there alone with Czar Brench!
He seemed to care for little except order and strict discipline. He used
to take off his boots and, putting on an old pair of carpet slippers,
walk softly up and down the room, leisurely swinging his ruler. First
and last that winter he feruled nearly all of us boys and several of the
girls. "Little love pats to assist memory," he used to say, as he
brought his ruler down on the palms of our hands.
Feruling with the ruler was for ordinary, miscellaneous offenses; but
Czar Brench had more picturesque punishments for the six or seven
"deadly sins.
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