It could be in private or in front of the class. I could even be held down by the six most virtuous girls as in Herman Hesses’ “Peter Camazund”, although I admit I hadn’t read that at ten. My bottom may be bare or my underpants would provide some modesty or I could wear nothing but a nice tight pair of gym shorts and Miss Ross, a smile playing on her lips, chalks her thinnest cane in preparation for six crisp, unhurried, painful strokes.
This inner life will be with me until they put me in a box. Miss Ross is now of course much younger than I and she has some rivals. Some woman will by some look or gesture capture my imagination and I will transport her to that inner world and she will become the strict schoolteacher of my dreams. Of course I am not really some sad old bugger, I am still ten going on eleven!!!

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