From: riharpist@aol.com (RIharpist)
Subject: Story from Gigi: Suzanna 1810
Date: 27 Mar 1997 19:46:40 GMT

        Here is Suzanne, age nine at the time of this fictional account. 
She was a real person an ancestor of mine, living in southwestern Ohio
when this story took place.  If you object to the spanking of children,
please do not read.  As you know, this was common practice in those times.
 Please do not use this story for any purpose without my permission


                          Suzanna  1810
                              by Gigi

        Suzanna's mother had some fine old jewelry pieces that her mother
and grandmother had passed down to her.  She kept them in a pearl-edged,
enameled box on her dressing table, and Suzanna loved to sit with her and
look at each piece as its history was explained.

        One day, her mother was down in the kitchen, and Suzanna passed by
the bedroom.  There was the lovely box, just calling to her.  She drifted
into the room and sat by the box, running her fingers over its decorated
sides and top.  As she did this, she listened to see where folks might be
in the house, and when certian that she was alone, turned the tiny key and
opened the box.  Her favorite piece was a silver and turquoise bracelet,
which her father had obtained while in business with a trader.  Suzanna
put the bracelet on....... just to try it.  It fit!!!  Without realizing
the disaster that would follow, she "borrowed it" for the afternoon to
show her friends.
        
        As they went to play by the river, Suzanna tripped and fell, and
in putting out her arms to stop her fall, the bracelet flew into the
river.  All of the girls tried to find it, but the river would not reveal
it.

        The guilt and fear were tremendous, but Suzanna decided not to say
anything "in case no one noticed".  That would give her time to keep on
looking.  About three days later, at supper, her mother mentioned that she
was unable to locate her bracelet.  She asked if anyone had seen it. 
Suzanna began to squirm.  The five other children just shook their heads
and kept on eating -- until they noticed their parents silently looking at
Suzanna.  All became still.. Out tumbled the story through tears.

        Suzanna's mother's face was filled with shock and then anger, and
she began to lecture Suzanna, now trembling and crying.  Her father stood
up and slammed his napkin onto the table.  He pushed back his chair and
grabbed Suzanna by the waist, carrying her out to the shed and set her
down.  

        Then he pulled up a stool, took Suzanna's wrist, and pulled her
over his knees.  Up went her dress and petticoats, as she howled in
protest, and her father unbuttoned her bloomers on each side to slide them
down with her long, black, wool stockings to Suzanna's ankles.  

        He reached for a shingle and began to smack her bare bottom and
upper legs with the shingle again and again.  Suzanna grasped at the air
in front of her, almost trying to swim off his lap.  She kicked her legs,
but she was all bound up in her bloomers and stockings.  Nothing helped. 
That shingle was turning her buttocks a brilliant red.  She was screaming
and begging for mercy, but there was none.

        Then, as the spanking ended, a sobbing Suzanna lay submissively as
her father dressed her again.  She returned to the dining room and buried
her face in her mother's lap, begging for forgiveness.  Her mother stroked
her hair lovingly and told her that feeling guilty carried much more pain
than the spanking had.  
        
        They made many trips to the river in the coming days, but the
beloved bracelet was never found.