"Ann Anderson," he bawled, "stand up on the seat."
With trembling limbs, Annie obeyed. She could scarcely stand at first,
and the form shook beneath her. For some time her colour kept
alternating between crimson and white, but at last settled into a
deadly pallor. Indeed, it was to her a terrible punishment to be
exposed to the looks of all the boys and girls in the school. The elder
Bruce tried hard to make her see one of his vile grimaces, but, feeling
as if every nerve in her body were being stung with eyes, she never
dared to look away from the book which she held upside down before her
own sightless eyes.--This pillory was the punishment due to falling
asleep, as hell was the punishment for forgetting God; and there she
had to stand for a whole hour.
"_What a shame! Damn that Malison!_" and various other subdued
exclamations were murmured about the room; for Annie was a favourite
with most of the boys, and yet more because she was the General's
sweetheart, as they said; but these ebullitions of popular feeling were
too faint to reach her ears and comfort her isolation and exposure.
Worst of all, she had soon to behold, with every advantage of position,
an outbreak of the master's temper, far more painful than she had yet
seen, both from its cruelty and its consequences.
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