When the small boy misbehaved, the schoolma'am would unsheath this weapon, and for some time thereafter the culprit found sitting down exceedingly uncomfortable.
Sometimes the sole of the schoolmistress's slipper answered the same purpose, and sometimes a stick from some neighboring birch-tree.

It all came to pretty much the same thing in the end.

The schoolmistress knew well how to accomplish her purpose.

There was a diversity of gifts but the same spirit.
We were put to school much earlier than children are now and were more advanced in our studies on the whole.

I began to study Latin on my sixth birthday.