An entry of this kind was frequent: "If you are uncertain of the answer to a question in arithmetic, it is advisable to leave the room on some pretext and work out the sum swiftly in the passage." Various pretexts were suggested, and this one (which had an insufficient line through it) had been inserted by Dr.McQueen on that day when Tommy saw him chuckling, "You pretend that your nose is bleeding and putting your handkerchief to it, retire hastily, the supposition being that you have gone to put the key of the blue-and-white room down your back." Evidently these small deceptions troubled Miss Ailie, for she had written, "Such subterfuge is, I hope, pardonable, the object being the maintenance of scholastic discipline." On another page, where the arithmetic was again troubling her, this appeared: "If Kitty were aware that the squealing of the slate-pencils gave me such headaches, she would insist on again taking the arithmetic class, though it always makes her ill.

Surely, then, I am justified in saying that the sound does not distress me." To this the doctor had added, "You are a brick." There were two pages headed NEVER, which mentioned ten things that Miss Ailie must never do; among them, "_Never_ let the big boys know you are afraid of them.

To awe them, stamp with the foot, speak in a loud ferocious voice, and look them unflinchingly in the face." "Punishments" was another heading, but she had written it small, as if to prevent herself seeing it each time she opened the book.

Obviously her hope had been to dispose of Punishment in a few lines, but it would have none of that, and Mr.McLean found it stalking from page to page.
Miss Ailie favored the cane in preference to tawse, which, "often flap round your neck as yon are about to bring them down." Except in desperate cases "it will probably be found sufficient to order the offender to bring the cane to you." Then followed a note about rubbing the culprit's hand "with sweet butter or dripping" should you have struck too hard.
Dispiriting item, that on resuming his seat the chastised one is a hero to his fellows for the rest of the day.

Item, that Master John James Rattray knows she hurts her own hand more than his.