Disobedience doesn't pay

Why are they looking so glum, so worried?

Well, they were put to bed in the usual way, tucked in, the light put out and told to go straight to sleep. But, once they heard Matron's steps walk down the passage and the door of her bedroom close, they oh so quietly began gathering the food and drink they had been hoarding for the past week.

Joan had bought  the sweets in town last Saturday and Mildred had saved the cake her mother had sent her, to share with her friends for their planned midnight feast. Patricia's contribution had been to buy a bottle of lemonade after her hockey game against the other local grammar school in a nearby town. She'd rushed to the store and purchased it before the bus departed back to school. It had been daring of her and her heart was racing the whole time.

The girls sat down in the middle of the room on the rug, smiling deviously at their cunning to have mastered the plan but when Sarah quietly brought from behind her back a small bottle of Vodka the girls could not contain their squeals of glee. Oh!, the naughtiest of them all, sexy Sarah had been given the remains of the bottle of Vodka by a boy she sometimes met behind the boat sheds for a pash and she had saved it for this special occasion.

They were so enjoying themselves, gobbling down the cake, and having swigs of the contraband alcohol that they hadn't heard anything in the hall at all. Suddenly, the door opened and the light was flung on.

"What is the meaning of this?" Matron wanted to know. "You girls will pay with your hides for this flaunting of school rules!

The girls suddenly weren't so happy. Sarah tried to hide the vodka bottle behind her back.

"Sarah, bring your hands where I can see them," Matron demanded.

Sarah had no choice but to obey.

"Alcohol!! Not in my dormitories, young lady. I shall see to it that the Master gives you all a very sound hiding. Go and wait outside his office at once!"

And, so there the young ladies sat, waiting for the Master to receive them.

The Matron had needed to get him out of bed since for once he had decided to have an early night. He wasn't happy and the scowl on his face as he made his way past them to his office assured the girls that they would not be sitting so comfortably again for at least a week.

Poor Sarah, the girl to the far right, the one sitting a bit separate to the others, would take her turn last, as one might have predicted.

The procurement of alcohol was strictly against school rules and it had meant that the Master had needed to telephone Sarah's father and inform him of the situation. They had a choice in such situations - either a week's suspension from school or an extra twelve of the cane. Her father wasted no time in choosing an extra dozen stripes for his daughter  and recommended that they not be forgettable. The Master assured him that Sarah would not forget the disciplinary session for some time to come.

And, so we leave the girls to contemplate the Master's disappointment in their behavior and to ponder the veracity of their ill-conceived plan. How much better it would have been to be good and simply obey.