Truancy already punished

The “black sheep” of the class came to his schoolmaster recently and gave him a note. The lad had been absent from school the previous day, so the master was expecting such a missive. But what he read exceeded even his wildest imaginings. It was from the boy’s mother and ran: “Honoured sir, Please excuse James for being absent yesterday. He played truant, but you need not punish him this time. The boy he was with quarrelled with him, and he licked my Jimmy. Then a man they threw a stone at caught him and licked him, and the owner of a dog they chased licked him, and the driver of a cart they hung on licked him, and then I licked him for being home late, and his father licked him for playing truant, and then I licked him again for being impudent to me for telling his father. So please do not punish him until the next time. He says he will go to school regular in future.”