From: riharpist@aol.com (RIharpist)
Subject: New Story from Gigi: Polly 1825
Date: 15 Mar 1997 20:24:20 GMT

        This is another in the historical series about ancestors of mine
who settles in various parts of the midwest as well as northeast.  I know
quite a bit about their personalities, but the stories I have written are
purely fictional.  If it is disturbing to you top read about young
children being spanked as punishment, please do not read any further. 
This was an approved method of those times.

                           Polly
                          by Gigi

        Polly grew up in a town in northern New York state, the daughter
of the pharmacist.  Her father often acted as a physician in the absence
of the local doctor, and folks consulted him frequently for potions for
various ills.  

        Polly's mother had eight other living children, Polly being number
six, and at the time of this episode, Polly was seven years old.  Polly's
temperment was such that she enjoyed life to the fullest in good times,
but storm clouds could rise in her blue eyes to make them firey and angry
when she felt crossed.  Her mother had all she could do to keep Polly from
saying something inappropriate to folks, should Polly become angered by
them.  At one time, her mother had told her at dinner that it felt like a
full time occupation in addition all else she had to do.

        Polly suddenly stood up.  I guess it wasn't what she wanted to
hear.  She pushed her plate to the center of the table and stormed out the
door, slamming it behind her.  Her father gestured his hand gently toward
her mother, as the other children sat horrified, and he stood to follow
Polly.  There she was outside pouting against the barn wall.  When she saw
her father, Polly told him to leave her alone.  He had other ideas.  He
explained that the Devil takes children and tried to steal tham from
families.  He said that for generations this family had stuck together
through much, and it wasn't about to be destroyed by the Devil now.  

        With that he took Polly's arm and led her into the barn, which
told her that she was not going to be left alone as requested.  She knew
that the Devil was going to be spanked out of her, and this was when she
had a major change in attitude.  She begged and pleaded with her father to
let her go.  She said that she would go and tell her mother how sorry she
was for having been so rude, but her father told her that her mother was
tired of having to put up with this, and that he was there to take care of
it this time.  He told her that he hoped that this would be the end of it
-- that there would be no more incidents of this type of thing.

        Down from the wall, Polly's father took a well-worn strap.  He sat
on a hay bale and put the strap beside him.  Then he reached up under
Polly's skirts to unbutton her pantaloons.  Over his knees he placed her
carefully, and raised her skirt up over her back.  Polly pushed up on his
knees, arching her back in an attempt to escape, but her father forced her
upper back down, placing her face along sidethe bale of hay, with her
braids scraping the floor.  Carefully, and slowly, he slid her pantaloons
up over her buttocks and down her legs to her knees, so she now lay bare
before him from the waist to the knees.  Her bottom tensed in anticipation
as her father picked up the strap in his right hand.  

        Before he began the spanking, he talked with her about being
"spoiled" and "rude".  He talked with her about being a poor example for
the little ones and a disruptive member of the family.  He pointed out the
she was the only one with such a poor attitude, and it would simply have
to change.  He was holding his strap filled hand on her buttocks as he
talked with her.  As she tensed and released, she felt the presence of the
weapon, and she was a wreck, for she knew what was coming very shortly. 
He spoke of wives who did not have fathers who had done this in their
childhood, and therefore needed to have husbands who took them to the
barn.  He was not going to have his daughter such a wife some day.  He
wanted her to be sweet and beautiful as was her mother.

        With the end of the lecture came the whipping.  Polly screamed and
cried as the strap slapped her bare buttocks again and again.  She grabbed
at the hay bale, struggling desperately to get free, but it was no use. 
She was in the tight grip of a spanking father.  Her bottom was getting
redder and redder with each stroke of the strap, until there were no more
lines, just an overall crimson color.  

        Polly's father suddenly stopped and stood her up. holding her arms
firmly at her sides.  He made her look at him as he continued the lecture.
 She was sobbing out of control now, and she could hardly see.  He told
her to put her arms on top of her head, and she did so as he reached down
and pulled up her pantaloons and buttoned them carefully.  He pulled her
arms down and pulled her to him, hugging her between his knees.  He told
her that she was never, ever to do such a thing again.  She shook her
head.  He picked her up and carried her back into the house, where an
anxious family sat at the dinner table waiting for their return.  Her
father set her down before her mother, and Polly was forced to tell her
that she was very sorry, which she did with ease.

        I wish I could tell you that Polly was able to keep her bloomers
up from that time on, but she had a tough row to how as a child with that
dreadful temper.  There was many a time in the next few years when that
young lady found herself face down and bare bottom raised.  Apparently,
she grew up to be a fine woman who raised sveral beautiful children,
moving to Albany, New York as a married lady.  I wonder what she did with
that temper...........