Keep in mind that in the 19th century a loaf of bread was the difference between life and death many a time. It's difficult to understand why people took food so seriously until you've gone through some amount of starvation yourself.
Nah. It was just a Mom trying to terrorize a child into being careful with the bread she baked. Probably because it was inconvenient to Mom. Folks beat kids back then for talking back, for spilling milk, for looking at them wrong. No need to justify the over-the-top punishment - it was par for the course for kids.
