`` I shall never , no never , forget it . She was up here one night with you when you were about three , and you and Walter were playing out in the kitchen yard with a kitten . I had a big puncheon of rainwater by the spout which I was reserving for making soap . And you and Walter began quarrelling over the kitten . Walter was at one side of the puncheon standing on a chair , holding the kitten , and you were standing on a chair at the other side . You leaned across that puncheon and grabbed the kitten and pulled . You were always a great hand for taking what you wanted without too much ceremony . Walter held on tight and the poor kitten yelled but you dragged Walter and the kitten half over and then you both lost your balance and tumbled into that puncheon , kitten and all . If I had not been on the spot you would both have been drowned . I flew to the rescue and hauled you all three out before much harm was done , and your mother , who had seen it all from the upstairs window , came down and picked you up , dripping as you were , and gave you a beautiful spanking . Ah , '' said Susan with a sigh , `` those were happy old days at Ingleside . '' `` Must have been , '' said Ken . His voice sounded queer and stiff . Rilla supposed he was hopelessly enraged . The truth was he dared not trust his voice lest it betray his frantic desire to laugh . `` Rilla here , now , '' said Susan , looking affectionately at that unhappy damsel , `` never was much spanked . She was a real well-behaved child for the most part . But her father did spank her once . She got two bottles of pills out of his office and dared Alice Clow to see which of them could swallow all the pills first , and if her father had not happened in the nick of time those two children would have been corpses by night . As it was , they were both sick enough shortly after .
But the doctor spanked Rilla then and there and he made such a thorough job XXXXX it that she never meddled with anything in his office afterwards .
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