As Miss Hunter and Martha Rose walked into the schoolhouse, Miss Hunter came to a decision.

When she had first started teaching, one of her friends had presented her with a paddle.

"Eleanor," Miss Hunter had objected, "you know I don't believe in corporal punishment."

"I know, Rosemary, but take it anyway, and keep it somewhere in your classroom. You never know when it
might come in handy."

And for all this time, that paddle had remained, unused, in the drawer of her desk.

Miss Hunter looked towards the blackboard on which Mary Ellen and Martha Rose had each written, fifty times
I will not call people names, and said, "I'm sure you remember writing those sentences."

"Yes, Miss Hunter."

"Yet not long after you wrote those sentences," Miss Hunter went on, "I heard you call Mary Ellen a cheat. And earlier
today," she reminded Martha Rose, "you said that I should paddle Mary Ellen for what she called you. Remember?

Martha Rose did not answer.

"So you think that a paddling is an appropriate punishment for name-calling? For anyone who calls somebody names?"

Martha Rose looked at the floor. She had heard the emphasis Miss Hunter had put on the word anyone.

"Martha Rose," Miss Hunter said, opening the drawer and taking out the paddle, "I'm going to do what you
suggested."

Seconds later, Martha Rose found herself receiving the first, and the last, spanking of her life.

After the tenth spank, Miss Hunter said, "Two more." She was just as relieved as Martha Rose that it was almost over.

WHACK!

"OWWWW!"

WHACK!

"OWWWW!"

"Now go stand in the corner for ten minutes."

Miss Hunter sent Martha Rose to the corner, not so much as an additional punishment as to give her a chance to compose herself.

While a tearful Martha Rose stood in the corner, rubbing her bottom, Miss Hunter wrote a note to her parents. She felt that they had a right
to know what had happened.

####

"I can't wait to see Martha Rose tomorrow," Mary Ellen gloated as the Walton children walked home.

"You're not going to say anything to her," said John-Boy. "We had no business staying to listen, and I'm
ashamed that we did."

"But it is funny that after saying that Mary Ellen should be paddled, Martha Rose got it instead," Erin pointed out.

"Yes," John-Boy said, "but for all we know, the next one to get paddled by Miss Hunter might be one of us."

But John-Boy was mistaken. Never again would Miss Hunter paddle one of her students.

"I just hope," Mary Ellen said, "that all this business about that poem is finally over."

But it wasn't.