Sallie Hicks's Forefinger

Military Handbooks: Infantry Drill Regulations United States Army 1911

Sallie Hicks was a little girl who was good most of the time, but she

had one bad habit, and that was caused by her forefinger on her right

hand.



Sallie's right-hand forefinger would get into things it should not, and

it caused Sallie's mother a great deal of trouble, and most of Sallie's

punishments were on account of that unruly right-hand-forefinger.



One day Sallie's mother set a dish of ot jelly on the kitchen table to

cool. She told Sallie it was hot and she must not touch it.



But no sooner was her mother out of the kitchen and the cook's head was

turned another way than Sallie Hicks forgot all about her mother's

warning, and the naughty right-hand forefinger went right into the hot

jelly.



Oh, how Sallie screamed with pain! And she forgot all about putting

the forefinger in her mouth to taste the jelly, it burned her so.



The big tears ran right down Sallie's pretty pink cheeks, and her

mother and grandmother, and cook, too, came running to see what was the

matter.



The little forefinger told the story, and it had to be wrapped in some

cooling salve and a soft piece of linen.



"I told you that some day you would get that finger burned," said her

mother, "and now because you disobeyed me you must sit in the big chair

in the hall until lunch time and not speak to anyone. I want you to

think about that naughty finger."



Sallie's grandmother passed her in the hall and leaned over and kissed

her. "I am sorry that grandmother's little girl was so naughty," she

said. "Good little girls mind their mothers and they don't get burnt

fingers."



Sallie watched her grandmother go upstairs and then Sallie looked at

the picture hanging on the wall of her great-grandmother.



"I wonder if Grandmother Great ever had to punish grandmother," thought

Sallie. "I wonder if grandmothers were always very good little girls?"



Sallie looked at her Grandfather Great, too, and wondered how it was

that, though the Greats were the father and mother of her own dear

grandmother, they had nice black hair, all smooth and shiny, while her

grandmother and grandfather, too, had white hair.



Sallie looked at the forefinger all wrapped about with the white cloth,

and she thought how dreadful it would be to have her finger big and

long as it looked now. Then she looked at Grandmother Great again and

her eyes seemed to be looking right at that little burnt forefinger.



Sallie put her right hand behind her, but the eyes of Grandmother Great

looked right at Sallie.



Sallie winked her eyes and looked again, for she thought her

Grandmother Great smiled at her. Sallie looked hard at the picture,

and Grandmother Great seemed to shake her head at Sallie.



"Didn't your little girl ever do anything naughty with her forefinger?"

asked Sallie.



Grandmother Great smiled. "I had several little girls once, but they

were all good little girls," said Grandmother Great.



"Always, every bit of the time?" questioned Sallie.



"Yes; I cannot remember now that they ever did anything naughty," said

Grandmother Great. "But you know, dear, it was a long time ago. I had

my little girls a very long time ago."



"Perhaps you forget when it is a long time ago," said Sallie. "Didn't

your little girls ever put their forefinger in anything just to taste

it?"



"Oh dear, yes; I remember now that your grandmother did put her

forefinger, the right-hand forefinger it was, too, in the wheel of the

wringer once to see what would happen," said Grandmother Great.



"Did she cry?" asked Sallie.



"Oh dear, yes, poor little girlie; she cried, and I was so frightened I

cried, too. Her poor little finger never grew quite as it should at

the end," said Grandmother Great, with a sigh.



"Do mothers cry when little girls get burnt putting their fingers into

things they should not?" asked Sallie.



"Of course they do, my dear. Mothers have many a cry over their little

girls when they are naughty," said Grandmother Great.



"I don't want mother to cry," said Sallie.



"Of course you don't, my dear," said Grandmother Great. "So you will

not put your finger in anything again, will you?"



Before Sallie could promise her Grandmother Great she would be a good

little girl she heard some one say, "Sallie, Sallie, come to lunch."



Sallie opened her eyes, for she had been asleep, dreaming all this

time, and there stood her mother in the doorway.



"Mother, do mothers forget how naughty their little girls were when

they grow up?" asked Sallie.



"I think so," said her mother. "I hope you will be so good before you

grow up that I shall forget how naughty you were this morning."



"Grandmother Great told me mothers did forget their little girls were

naughty ever, after they grew up," said Sallie.



"You mean your grandmother told you; not Grandmother Great," said

Sallie's mother. "You never saw Grandmother Great, dear."



"Well, she told me so just now," said Sallie, "and she said, too, that

grandmother put her finger in the wheel of the wringing machine once,

and that she cried because grandmother, who was her little girl then,

cried, and was hurt."



"What is the child talking about?" said Sallie's mother.



"She has been asleep and dreamed it," said Sallie's grandmother, taking

Sallie in her arms. "I showed her my forefinger where it was hurt when

I was a little girl and told her she must look out for her forefinger

or she might get it terribly hurt just as I did.



"Did you think the picture of Grandmother Great spoke to you?" she

asked Sallie, holding her close in her arms.



"She did," said Sallie, "and she said mothers always cried when their

little girls are naughty. Oh, mother dear, I don't want to make you

cry, and I won't put my finger in anything again, truly I won't!"

sobbed Sallie.



"She isn't half awake yet," said her grandmother as Sallie's mother

took her in her arms and kissed her.



Sallie kept her promise, even if she did dream about Grandmother Great

talking to her, and the right-hand forefinger did not get her into any

more trouble.



Sallie Hicks often looks at the portraits in the hall of Grandmother

and Grandfather Great, but Grandmother Great never has spoken to her

since that day. But Sallie Hicks smiles at her and sometimes the eyes

seem to smile back, and Sallie wonders if they really do.