Susan Cornford

Now and Then

‘Bully’, the teacher had written on the blackboard.

           ‘You may not know that a bully was a good thing in the old days, which shows how language can change.’

           ‘There’s also bully beef, which is corned beef,’ spoke up the class’s bright spark.

          ‘Of course,’ taking back the reins, ‘now it means stronger people being cruel to weaker people, which we don’t accept in any form.’

          This provoked the hoped for lively discussion, including what to do.

        Class dismissed, the teacher turned to the blackboard, thinking of being held and threatened with soap in the eyes twenty years before.