How about this for another Project Gutenberg find? The lack of much-merited spankings in Susan Coolidge’s “What Katy Did At School” is more than compensated for with this one adorable scene involving the new girls:
Katy held her watch up to the dim light. She could just see the hands. Yes: they pointed to six. It was actually morning! She and Clover jumped up, and began to dress as fast as possible.
“We’ve only got half an hour,” said Clover, unhooking the rules, and carrying them to the window,–“Half an hour; and this says that we must turn the mattress, smooth the under-sheet over the bolster, and spend five minutes in silent devotion! We’ll have to be quick to do all that besides dressing ourselves!”
It is never easy to be quick, when one is in a hurry. Every thing sets itself against you. Fingers turn into thumbs; dresses won’t button, nor pins keep their place. With all their haste, Katy and Clover were barely ready when the second bell sounded. As they hastened downstairs, Katy fastening her breast-pin, and Clover her cuffs, they met other girls, some looking half asleep, some half dressed; all yawning, rubbing their eyes, and complaining of the early hour.
No spankings, as I said: the fictional teacher’s strap remained firmly in the desk drawer. Not in my dreams, dear Katy; not in my dreams.