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summer and Alice will be 18. She is not going back to school and neither are you. You will be taught here by myself in the things that I feel you should know! I am not the larg- est property owner in this county for nothing, and being on the School Board - well, as you know, a lot of boys and girls leave school in this part of the country at 17 to work on their folks' farms. Well, my dear, you will be removed from school for a different sort of training. I have money and you are engaged to Alice here and Alice wants to remain engaged to you more than ever - now! I shall provide for you my dear, through Alice who will become your wife when you reach a few more years of age. Perhaps at 18, maybe 21, it is all according to how your training goes,"

I asked through my tears what she meant by training. She said: "Well you have been a very naughty boy at school and in the village for quite some time. You should have asked me for clothing for the things you crave. You stole them and most likely the poor wash woman and her daughter would have been blamed. You stole my dear - and you must be punished for it. You need to be given a new life and new outlook!

I gasped, as I was still numb with shame at being caught this way and now being on her lap and looked at with utter amuse- ment by Alice. Miss Cora went on with her lecture: "My dear, as you know, I never did like nor did I respect boys and men. In fact I despise them. You were rightly surprised when I took you in and treated you with kindness. You see, my dear lad, I have taken psychology at college and I know you like a book.

I will not here give her talk to me word for word but I will give the main facts so as to be brief. I was told in no uncertain terms that I would be kept in dresses at least until I was 21 and that I would be given proper costumes for proper occasions; that I would be taken to the county seat to shops to be fitted and that the local dressmaker would even have a part in my new life and my fate and punish- ment. I was told that my skin would be treated and that I