From: riharpist@aol.com (RIharpist)
Subject: Story from Gigi: Lydia 1846
Date: 21 Mar 1997 15:13:24 GMT

  This is another ancestor of mine.  Lydia lived in a prairie village in
Kansas and was six at the time of this account.  If you object to the
spanking of young children (common practice at that time), please do not
read this.  Lydia was real, but the story is purely fictional.  Also,
please do not use this story in any way without my permission.

                            Lydia 1846
                             By Gigi

        It had been raining for five days straight, and everything was
damp and soggy.  Children had been cooped up in the cabins and were
restless and cranky.  Mothers were getting more and more intolerent of the
behavior, so it would not have taken much to have things snap -- and snap,
they did.  

        On the fifth day of the rain, in the mid-afternoon, Lydia was
seated by the fireplace hearth, and her one-and-a-half year old brother,
Jacob toddled over beside her.  She told him to "go away!".  He stayed and
lost his balance, falling slightly against her.  Lydia "snapped".  She
brought her arm back and gave him such a hard push that he fell backwards,
bumping the back of his head on the leg of the table.  He rolled away from
Lydia, screaming, and their mother came rushing over to care for him.  She
took the howling baby to the rocking chair, inspected him for injuries,
rubbed his head soothingly, and opened her blouse to breast feed him as
she rocked him.  He began to calm and nurse peacefully.

        As she was breastfeeding Jacob, Lydia's mother told her that "she
was going to get a spanking for this!"  and she ordered Lydia to go and
place herself over the stool to wait.  Lydia obeyed, and for what seemed
like the longest time in the world, all she heard was the crackling of the
fire, the rain on the roof, the sqeaking of the rocking chair, and the
little suckling noises from her baby brother.

        When Jacob was finally asleep, Lydia's mother placed him carefully
in his bed and went to get the wooden paddle that Lydia's father had made
and hung on the wall near the fireplace.

        Her mother pulled Lydia to her feet and turned her around facing
the stool.  She sat down on the stool and slid her hands up under Lydia's
skirt to unbutton her bloomers  Lydia was stamping her feet in protest,
but her mother ignored the tantrum, pulling the bloomers down to Lydia's
ankles and commanding her to step out of them.  Taking Lydia's arm, she
placed her over her aproned lap and raised Lydia's skirt high over her
back.  There, in full view, was Lydia's vulnerable, naked bottom. 
Reaching for the paddle, Lydia's mother began the spanking.  Oh! Did that
hurt!  The paddle struck up and down the backs of Lydia's legs as well as
over the tops of her buttocks.  Lydia was howling and kicking.  

        Her father came in and saw his daughter's ever reddening behind. 
He nodded knowingly, as though he were aware that tension had been
mounting all week.  There was a break in the spanking, as Lydia's mother
related what had happened.  As her father went to check on Jacob, Lydia
lay sobbing and clenching and unclenching her buttocks.  Her father
returned to report that there was indeed a small bump rising on Jacob's
head, but that he thought it was not going to be serious.  He gave Lydia
several fairly hard hand spanks and scolded her.  Lydia arched her back,
but her mother pressed down on her upper back again and gave her a few
additional whacks with the paddle.  

        A very sorry little girl sobbed in her bed and then fell asleep
for the rest of the afternoon.  Her father rocked her in the rocking chair
after dinner and told her some stories before her mother put her to bed. 
Everyone knew how difficult this week had been.