(no subject)
The Burley boys were widely known in their neighborhood. Poor Mrs. Burley, while trying to bear a girl she ended up with four boys. She finally got her girl, but by then Mrs. Burley had given in to truck wall paper and footballs. She had four sons, Charles, David, Phillip and Oliver, and a daughter, Joni. Despite her lack of frills, Mrs. Burley demanded that her children, particularly her boys, behave well. She never wanted to hear, “Well, Ann Burly had four boys, you can understand why their house is so rowdy.” So, in order to keep up the discipline, she demanded that her husband swat the children when they got out of order. Mrs. Burley had the logic of a physics professor but the heart of a nursing mother, and she couldn’t bear to witness her children cry in pain. Therefore, she not only demanded that her husband discipline the children, but that he also do it in another room where their crys would be muffled. Mr. Burley loved his wife very much and loved to keep her happy. He never let her know that he hated to hear his children cry in pain also, and so, after their influential years, he would let his children in on a little secret. After having done something bad, and their mother yelling furiously at them and sending them into their father’s den, Good Mr. Burley would take them up on his knee and look them straight in the eye. He informed their children that they did something wrong, what exactly and why. Then he would tell them that he was supposed to spank them, but he just couldn’t because he didn’t want to hurt them. So, he set up a system and each child thought it was specifically for him/her. The naughty child would cry and scream and Good Mr. Burley would slap his hand on his worn copy of David Copperfield. The older Burley boys were particularly good at the yelling and crying, and therefore Mrs. Burely, in the kitchen with one ear out for her babies, would often whisper to her youngest boy, Oliver, how his father was always so hard on the older boys and so kind to young Oliver. Because of this, when Oliver misbehaved and Good Mr. Burley would take Oliver on his knee and say, “I just can’t spank you like I should because I don’t want to hurt you,” Oliver was convinced it was because he was a weak child. The older boys eventually conspired together and discovered their father’s muse, but Oliver was out of the loop many years into his own child-rearing years. The world would have been a different place if Oliver Burley had discused with his brothers and learned his father’s secret. But, instead, Oliver Burley grew up convinced he was a weaker boy, and oblivious to his own incredible strength, avoided the sports his brothers excelled at. Oliver Burley would never know that he was a better football, soccer, softball, and hockey player than his three older brothers put together because both of his parents didn’t have the heart to spank their children.