No Joke

The cane reverberated through the headmaster’s thick oak door - 6 strokes on Walmsley’s thinly protected backside. With hindsight the pillow fight in the dormitory had been a rotten idea.
Me next - standing before the wirey PE instructor - it was so one sided.
Being invited to touch my toes I became conscious of movement under a dust sheet in the corner - a strident squawk emerged:
‘6 of the best’ and at each stroke ‘1, 2, 3, etc’.
It was the headmaster’s sadistic parrot getting in on the act from under his night sheet.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.