The king's son, Prince Horace, is a spoiled-rotten brat. He is known everywhere as Prince Brat. He is always up to no good and is deserving of whippings. However, as is the royal custom, princes are not to be harmed in any way, which means he will never be truly punished, whipped, beaten, or slapped. Instead, the castle employs a common boy to be the whipping boy. Each time the prince does something wrong, the servants fetch the whipping boy.

The son of a rat catcher, Jemmy tolerates the constant whippings without making a sound, which he is determined not to do. When he finds out that the prince really wants him to, he is resolved to keep his silence. The prince tells Jemmy that if he does not start to yelp or squawk at the next beating then he will tell his papa to remove...