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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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