8

MISS DRAFT DODGER (Continued)

I began a sort of "apprenticeship" of learning how to be a young girl for the next few days. My whiskers were a problem, as they had the normal growth of a man of my age, but this was solved for me in a manner that was excrutiatingly painful. Mrs. Vick- ers must have had a touch of the sadist in her, be- cause, two days later she called me into the kitchen. I had not been allowed to shave for the past three days and my beard, although light in color, was ragged and long. She had a pan of what looked like grease on the stove.

"Faraffin", she said, tersely. "The ancient Romans used a method of extirpating whiskers with hot paraffin. Sit down in this chair and put your

hands behind the chair".

I did as she ordered and almost immediately heard footsteps and before I could turn my head to see who it was, I felt my hands seized and, in a flash, bound tightly behind me and fastened to the chair. I was surprised and startled a little and uttered a shout of protest which was ignored. Won- dering at theses strange actions I allowed my head to be tipped backward. While my assailants, who naturally were Dora and Barbara, held my head tight- ly in position, Mrs. Vickers approached me with the pan of hot paraffin in one hand and a ladle in the other. with the ladle she scooped out the hot paraffin and--POURED IT OVER MY FACE! I screamed in agony as the hot substance ran over my chin and trickled down to my neck. Paying no heed to my screams and frantic struggles she continued to pour the paraffin onto my face until my cheeks, chin, upper lip and neck were completely covered. The paraffin hardened almost immediately into a stiff, rigid mask.

The extreme pain of this operation was as noth- ing compared to that which followed. Five minutes later when the paraffin was removed I though my skin was going with it. Mrs. Vickers used a very dull