"OW! OW! WOW! YEOW!" little nine-year-old Matt Walker wailed as the thick, flat oak stick came down hard, striking him twelve times in all across his perfect little bare bottom and equally bare thighs. He cried from pain, but also from the embarrassment.
Come to think of it, this was about just the most embarrassing moment in his young life. Oh he had been spanked before, lots of times, even spanked on the bare bottom....but never outside, where half the world could see it, and never like this! This was just too humiliating! This time, when they'd heard about his stealing candy from the corner drugstore, they had confronted him right out in the front yard.
They hadn't so much as asked him whether he was guilty or not. They just assumed that he was. And even though they were right this time, it still seemed terrible that they could grab their own kid, just like that, and pull off his little short pants and his little shorter underpantsÐ not pull them down, but OFF, all the way offÐin front of God and everybody, so that not only was he standing in front of everyone with his little body bare in front as well as in back, but he had no way of covering himself up, no way at all!
And wow, did that stick hurt! Where in the world did Daddy get it? It was two strips of quarter-inch plywood with a brass strip down the middle in between for reinforcement, so it wouldn't break and it hurt like fire every time it slapped the tender skin of Matt's bare bottom or the back of his thighs. Every lick left a pink spot on his fair skin.
At first the boy howled and twitched and tried every possible way to break free. When he realized that his father's irom grip was not going to be broken and his struggles only prolonged the agony, at last little Matt submitted to his fate, moaning and wailing softly, raising his voice only slightly as each of the last two whacks was delivered.
When his father finally said,"There!" and released him, Matt jumped up and down several times, clutching his well-reddened little rear, then stood still and calmed down. His hands continued clutching and rubbing his round little bottomcheeks as though he were utterly oblivious that his little hairless _d_i_c_k_ and balls were fully exposed.
He was not oblivious, however, and the first question that he asked, once he has found his voice again, was:
"May I put my pants back on now?"
"Certainly not!" replied his mother, who had stood by watching the entire proceedings.
"Please!"
"No."
"Please, why not?"
"Because I said so."
"But why are you saying so? Why won't you let me put my pants on now?"
"Because you've been a very willful, naughty little boy. And if you have to leave your pants off for a good while, all that time you can think about how bad a thing you did, and if you're ashamed and embarrassed enough, maybe you won't ever do it again."
"Mommy, I'm already as ashamed and embarrassed as I can be! I promise I won't ever do it again!"
"That's good!"
"So may I please put some pants on?"
"No."
"May I at least put on underpants?"
"No. You have to run around bare-bottomed for the next two hours. Then you may put on underpants."
"When can I put on pants again?"
"Tomorrow morning."
"Why do I have to do this?"
"Why did you steal the candy?"
"I don't understand."
"It's like this: you do know better than to steal candy, but you did it anyway. So, you decided to act like a little boy instead of a big boy. Well, your father and I have decided that the most appropriate response to this type of behavior is to let you be treated like a very little boy whenever you do something irresponsible. Little boys can't dress themselves and often don't much care whether they're fully dressed or not.
A two-year-old doesn't mind going around naked or bare-bottomed. Even a five-year-old does not mind being seen in his underpants. But you do, od course, since you're a nine-year-old. So, we're going to let you run around like a two-year-old, then like a five-year-old, and maybe by tomorrow you'll be ready to behave like a nine-year-old again."
Matt was very glad when the next morning came.