eight in the evening
We have entered into a mutual agreement which we are bound to honour . It behooves us , within a fixed time , to inscribe in the book of our common life eight good stories , to which we shall have brought energy , logic , perseverance , some subtlety and occasionally a little heroism . This is the eighth of them . It is for you to act so that it may be written in its proper place on the 5th of December , before the clock strikes eight in the evening . `` And , on that day , you will act as I shall now tell you . `` First of all -- and above all , my dear , do not complain that my instructions are fanciful : each of them is an indispensable condition of success -- first of all , cut in your cousin 's garden three slender lengths of rush . Plait them together and bind up the two ends so as to make a rude switch , like a child 's whip-lash .