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.