Hogfather - Mallet

The sound of Hex's quill as it scrabbled across the paper was like a frantic spider trapped in a matchbox. Despite his dislike of what was going on, there was a part of Ponder Stibbons that was very, very impressed.

In the past, when Hex had been recalcitrant about its calculations, when it had got into a mechanical sulk and had started writing things like '+++ Out of Cheese Error +++'and'+++ Redo From Start +++' Ponder had tried to sort things out calmly and logically. It had never, ever occurred to him to contemplate hitting Hex with a mallet. But this was, in fact, what Ridcully was threatening to do.

What was impressive, and also more than a little worrying, was that Hex seemed to understand the concept.

'Right,' said Ridcully, putting the mallet aside. 'Let's have no more of this “Insufficient dates” business, shallwe? There's boxes of the damn things back in the Great Hall. You can have the lot as far as I'm concerned—’

***

Hogfather - p233