Page:The Sins of the Cities of the Plain.djvu/138

 looking bit in your life? Stand clear and let me apply the reviver!"

Laura had got a long, thin bunch of birch, consisting of only three or four twigs, elegantly tied up with ribbons. Swish!—I heard it cur through the air, and if I had not been tied as I was I should fairly have jumped, such a stinging cut did I get.

"Ah! oh!! oh!!! Good God! not so hard, or you'll draw the blood!" I almost screamed out, as I winced under the pain.

"Ha! that was a beautifully practical illustration of how the birch should be applied. But perhaps you will like that better—and that—and that——?"

Three stinging cuts followed in rapid succession, and almost took my breath away.