Thirteen years old and couldn't be sweeter. Janice was unspoiled and well brought up. He and Julie had seen to that and had brought her up according to God's commandments. They'd never let her run wild. They'd been very strict with her and that was one of the reasons they didn't have to worry about her getting involved in any scandal like the one Reverend Corman had just been told about. He wondered what he would do if he ever caught Janice in a place like that, caught her with some old pervert who was forcing his baby to commit indecent acts. Merciful heavens, the thought of it made him whisper a silent prayer.

If those girls were willing then what they needed was not patience and permissive understanding but old fashioned discipline. He'd take responsibility for administering it, too. He'd go out there and take each one of those youngsters across his knee. He'd pull their skirts up around their waists and then he'd bring his hand down so hard on their quivering little buttocks that their screams would be heard clear on the other side of town. He clenched his teeth in righteous rage as he thought of their jiggling white ass-cheeks turning as red as tomatoes under their flimsy panties. The adolescent girls would thrash and squirm, do anything to escape his wrath, but by the good Lord, he would be relentless! Those kids had the thrashing of their lives coming to them, and he'd like to be the one to give it to them. Sure, they would sob and beg for mercy, beg him to stop the punishment, but he wouldn't listen. He would go on and on, raining one blow after another on their defenseless little bottoms, until he was exhausted.

And some day they would thank him for it, too. It would be a long time before they did, it would be a week before any of them would be able to sit down, even. But someday when they were finally women with husbands and children, decent citizens, free from the sins of youth, they'd thank him. He smiled grimly with satisfaction. And then he heard Dean Lowell's footsteps above the chaplain's small office and the scrape of his desk chair as he pulled it up to his desk.