But such was not the case; she never ventured to extend the simple repertoire nor did it ever occur to me to so much as wonder what she might have between her own legs. For upward of a year the spankings continued and then, much to my regret, she took her departure from our midst. And though it concerned me not the slightest at the time, I often speculated in the years as to precisely what there had been for her in all this and what pleasure she could have derived from the performance. Possibly the mere handling and fingering of my small but eminently masculine attributes in their state of sexual excitation reacted upon her own sensibilities, provoking a species of reciprocal echo. At any rate, I remember her with the kindliest feelings of appreciation.

I was seven years old when I made an important discovery. In the yard which surrounded our home were a number of trees. Among them was one of the eucalyptus variety, slim and straight as an arrow. Some six or seven inches in diameter at the base, its verdant bark as smooth as silk and not a branch or twig to mar its lissom symmetry for thirty or forty feet above the ground. There was something distinctly feminine about this young tree. Perhaps it was the smooth, beautiful bark and its slender gracefulness which set it apart in vivid contrast with its gnarled and rugged companions.

One afternoon, having nothing better to do, I endeavored to climb this tree by the " shinning" process. As you may not know just what the term means I will explain that, having no limbs or protuberances within reach which would provide footholds, the only way to climb such a tree was to wrap one' s arms and legs tightly about the trunk, and by virtue of much wriggling and squirming, work one' s way upward inch by inch. I had succeeded in hunching myself upward a short distance in this fashion when I began to feel again that delicious tremor which the hand of our erstwhile maid had formerly provoked.