"Forefinger" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... worst fault was disobedience, and a world of trouble it got him into. Remember that, Master Bertie: your grandpapa would be obeyed, and your papa is his own son in that respect. So take care, my dear, take care!" and the old lady shook her forefinger warningly. "But everything's forgot and forgave now," she added, more cheerfully; "and right glad I am Miss ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... four times a day, and there are eighty of you to be dosed each time," Smoke informed Laura Sibley. "So we've no time to fool. Will you take it or must I hold your nose?" His thumb and forefinger hovered eloquently above her. "It's vegetable, so ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London
... agonizingly sensitive to this form of torture. A forefinger extended with a threatening waggle was sufficient to rob her of every vestige of self-control, while the play of her brother's fingers over her ribs reduced her instantly to grovelling submission. To do Graham justice, he was quite unable to appreciate the fact that this pastime cost Ruth real ...
— Peggy Raymond's Vacation - or Friendly Terrace Transplanted • Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith
... great place—most bazaar storytellers in India make their villain hail from there; but when the agony and intrigue are piled highest and the tale halts till the very last breathless sprinkle of cowries has ceased to fall on his mat, why then, with wagging head and hooked forefinger, the storyteller ...
— Letters of Travel (1892-1913) • Rudyard Kipling
... bedroom," said Mr. Grummit, emphasizing his remarks with his forefinger. "I come up and beat the bed black and blue with the copper-stick; you scream for mercy and call out 'Help!' 'Murder!' and things like that. Don't call out 'Police!' cos Bill ain't sure about that part. Evans comes bursting in to save your life—I'll ...
— Captains All and Others • W.W. Jacobs
... France That divinely shook the dead From living man; that stretched ahead Her resolute forefinger straight And marched toward the gloomy gate ...
— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various
... of his forefinger. Against the dark blue of the evening sky to northward glowed a faint phosphorescence, arch-shaped, from which shot, with pulsating regularity, long shafts of light. They beat almost to the zenith, and back again, a half dozen times, then the whole illumination disappeared ...
— The Mystery • Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams
... He closed the window to keep the rain out, and after that stood with his face flattened against the glass, staring over the river. The camp-fires were all gone now, blotted out like so many candles snuffed between thumb and forefinger, and he shuddered. No canvas ever made would keep that deluge out. And now there was growing up a wind with it. The tents on the other side would be beaten down like pegged sheets of paper, ripped up and torn to pieces. He imagined St. Pierre's wife in that tumult and distress—the breath blown ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood
... fellow looked hurriedly behind him, then stared again, then made gestures backward, and next pointed at Malcolm with rapid pokes of his forefinger. Bewilderment had brought on the impediment in his speech, and all Malcolm could distinguish in the babbling efforts at utterance which followed, were the words,—"Twa o' them! Twa o' them! Twa o' them!" often ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald
... students of words. Demosthenes and Cicero were indefatigable in their study of language. Shakespeare, "infinite in faculty," took infinite pains to embody his thought in words of crystal clearness. Coleridge once said of him that one might as well try to dislodge a brick from a building with one's forefinger as to omit a single word from one of ...
— Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases • Grenville Kleiser
... with legs nearly a yard asunder—face and throat outstretched, and covered with a plentiful white lather—right arm brandishing aloft one of Paget's best razors, and left thumb and forefinger grasping my nose. In front of me stood my faithful Hindoo valet, Verasawmy by name, with a soap-box in one hand, while his other held up to his master's gaze a small looking-glass, over the top of which his black face, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, December 18, 1841 • Various
... chilly discomfort of the farmhouse parlour, unused, save on state occasions—a funereal gloom which no sunlight could pierce, a mustiness which savoured almost of the grave. One by one they obeyed the stern forefinger of Gideon Strong, and took their seats on comfortless chairs and the horse-hair sofa. First came John Magee, factor and agent to the Earl of Cumberland, a great man in the district, deacon of the chapel, slow and ponderous in his movements. A man of few words but much piety. After him, with some ...
— The Survivor • E.Phillips Oppenheim
... loved him, I whom he fooled to the top of my pride, judge him too harshly? I tell you if an angel from heaven had witnessed against him I would have laughed the tale to scorn. But I have seen—I have seen with my own eyes. The man who came to the door and threatened us had lost a joint of the forefinger. Yesterday I saw that man with him; I saw the hand that held the pistol to-day give him a note yesterday. I saw him read the note, and I saw him point me out to the man who bore it—that he might know to-day whom he was to seize! Oh shame! Shame on him!' And ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... seedling by the stem between the thumb and forefinger, and with a small round pointed stick or dibber, or with the forefinger of the other hand, make a hole deep enough to receive the roots and about half the length—more if the seedlings are lanky—of the stem. As the little plant is dropped ...
— Gardening Indoors and Under Glass • F. F. Rockwell
... an arm's length, lifted his right forefinger, as in warning, and without a word went on out of the room, though I observed his exit no more than I had ...
— Can Such Things Be? • Ambrose Bierce
... fellows, knowing the extravagant gullibility of the age, set their wits to work in the imagination of improbable possibilities—-of odd accidents, as they term them; but to a reflecting intellect (like mine," I added, in parenthesis, putting my forefinger unconsciously to the side of my nose,) "to a contemplative understanding such as I myself possess, it seems evident at once that the marvelous increase of late in these 'odd accidents' is by far the ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... up a stone off the path, a little, pointed stone, and began to scrape the letters carefully. He slowly effaced them altogether, and with the hollows of his eyes he looked at the places where they had been engraved, and, with the tip of the bone, that had been his forefinger, he wrote in luminous letters, like those lines which one traces on walls with the tip of a ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... juvenile hobo. But sticking out of his soaking pocket was that one indubitable sign of identification, his rimless hat cut full of holes and decorated with its variety of badge buttons. Ruefully, Mr. Denny lifted this dripping masterpiece of original handiwork, and held it between his thumb and forefinger. ...
— Tom Slade's Double Dare • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... should be seized with a forceps or pincers and slightly drawn clear of the surrounding tissues. Now take the thread and place the middle of it under the artery, take up the ends, tie one simple knot tightly, pressing the thread down with the forefinger so as not to include the forceps, then a second one over it and cut off the ends. The bleeding being arrested, the operator can now carefully clean and inspect the wound, taking care to remove all blood ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... pointing his forefinger at the man in irons. "You have disobeyed my orders. You are no longer an askari. You are a common porter, and from now on will carry a load. It is not my custom to use kiboko on askaris; but a common porter ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al
... were a ball, or holding it between the thumb-nail and the second joint of the first finger and shooting it with the thumb from there; but these ways are wrong. The correct way is to hold it between the tip of the forefinger and the first joint of the thumb. Marbles are divided into "taws," or well-made strong marbles with which you shoot, and "clays," or the ordinary cheap colored marbles at which you aim and with which you pay ...
— What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... the name of their beloved Asia; and whether they wandered north, south, or west, exalting their own emphatic designation of 'Children of the Land of Light' into the title of gods. And to think, (added Mr. Caxton pathetically, gazing upon that speck in the globe on which his forefinger rested,)—to think how little they changed for the better when they got to the Don, or entangled their rafts amidst the icebergs of the Baltic—so comfortably off as they were here, if they could ...
— International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, - No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 • Various
... sighed. I stood staring at him, open-mouthed with astonishment. He was evidently pouring out now all the discontent, displeasure and disgust, which had been gathering up during the whole of our journey. To convince me more thoroughly, he poked me in the chest from time to time with his forefinger, and shook me by the shoulder. During the most impressive parts of his speech he pushed up against me with his whole massive body. The rain was pouring down on us, the thunder never ceased its muttering, and to make me hear, Shakro shouted ...
— Creatures That Once Were Men • Maxim Gorky
... hedge, landed among water-logged clods, and sat down on a rust-coated harrow. The cheroot burned with sputterings of saltpetre. They smoked it gingerly, each passing to the other between dosed forefinger ...
— Stalky & Co. • Rudyard Kipling
... the tail-pocket of his long broadcloth coat he pulled a red bandanna handkerchief and blew his nose. He put the big blunt forefinger of his right hand on the text of the open ...
— In Happy Valley • John Fox
... asked if the servants on this plantation ever had the chance to learn how to read or to write he answered: "They was all afraid to even try because they would cut these off," and he held up his right hand and pointed to his thumb and forefinger. At any rate the "Widow," nieces taught him to read a few months before the ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration
... candle with his forefinger and thumb, making the flame brighter, and then holding the light close to the flat face of the wall, they examined stone after stone; but as far as they could make out, they had not been tampered with since the day the masons ...
— The Young Castellan - A Tale of the English Civil War • George Manville Fenn
... of giving comfort to somebody to arouse all Amy's natural hopefulness, and she commanded with a shake of her forefinger:— ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond
... Triton's lady, placing her forefinger significantly on her lips; "you peril your life by talking thus without guard. Go to the door; look out, that you may see if there be any listeners, then I will tell something ...
— Folk-lore and Legends: German • Anonymous
... attends on Mrs. Connolly beckons him, with a grimy forefinger, to the repast within. He accepts ...
— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
... puzzled. She had not resented his strange intrusion. She had accepted it, indeed, with curious equanimity. Her forefinger lingered still over the little ivory knob of the bell attached to her desk. He ...
— The Vanished Messenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... stood with an extended forefinger and the knitted brows of one anticipating a catastrophic smash. The cyclist, who was sitting next the lamp, ducked and jumped across the bar. Everybody jumped, more or less. Miss Maybridge turned and screamed. For nearly three seconds the lamp remained ...
— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells
... that a capital substitute for a very rude sextant is afforded by the outstretched hand and arm. The span between the middle finger and the thumb subtends an angle of about 15 degrees, and that between the forefinger and the thumb an angle of 11 1/4 degrees, or one point of the compass. Just as a person may learn to walk yards accurately, so may he learn to span out these angular distances accurately; and the horizon, however broken it may be, is always before his eyes to check him. Thus, if he begins from ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... lift the blotting pad, her forefinger had dropped upon the signature and had been drawn across, leaving nothing more than an ...
— Bones in London • Edgar Wallace
... on Sunday. It was worse even than that. One night—we were sitting out on the veranda—her scarf slipped, and I saw a scar on her arm, near her shoulder." Hardy stopped abruptly and began to roll a little pellet of bread between his thumb and his forefinger; then his tense expression faded and he sat ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... retirement—which Clarissa spun out until the spring flowers were blooming in the meadows about Arden—was a comparative immunity from the society of Miss Granger. That young lady made a dutiful call upon her stepmother every morning, and offered a chilling forefinger—rather a strong-minded forefinger, with a considerable development of bone—to the infant. On the child not receiving this advance with rapture, Miss Granger was wont to observe that he was not so forward in taking notice as some ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon
... of love-charms is as cold as ice, as pure as snow. The priest has crusaded against her, and stones have flown at her as she went by from dissatisfied lovers; and the very children, paddling in the sea and making mud-pies in the sand, have put out forefinger and little finger and screamed, "Witch, witch! ugly witch!" as she passed with basket or brick load; but Dionea has only smiled, that snake-like, amused smile, but more ominous than of yore. The other ...
— Hauntings • Vernon Lee
... little cherub," said Celia, touching, with a forefinger as light as a feather, the dimple on the child's chin; "and, of course, he isn't any trouble. And you wouldn't think he was, if he were, would you? What is ...
— The Woman's Way • Charles Garvice
... caressing the volumes with his eyes and hands, and, once, recognized a book he had read. For the rest, they were strange books and strange authors. He chanced upon a volume of Swinburne and began reading steadily, forgetful of where he was, his face glowing. Twice he closed the book on his forefinger to look at the name of the author. Swinburne! he would remember that name. That fellow had eyes, and he had certainly seen color and flashing light. But who was Swinburne? Was he dead a hundred years or so, like most of the poets? Or was he alive still, and writing? He turned to the title-page ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London
... glancing now and then toward points of danger and insurrection, whence came a suspicious buzz of whispering from behind a desk-lid or a pair of widespread large geographies. Now and then a toiling child would rise and come down the aisle, with his forefinger firm upon a puzzling word as if it were an unclassified insect. It was a lovely beckoning day out-of-doors. The children felt like captives; there was something that provoked rebellion in the droning voices, the buzzing of an early wild bee against ...
— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett
... the affair of the night before; it was the children's obvious alarm which reminded her that the business of scolding and punishing must be attended to. She got up from the table and stood behind them, with her back to the fire; she began to nibble the upper joint of her forefinger, wondering just how to begin. This silent inspection of their shoulders made the little creatures quiver. Nannie crumbled her bread into a heap, and Blair carried an empty spoon to his mouth with automatic regularity; Harris, in the pantry, in a paroxysm of sympathy, stretched his lean neck to the ...
— The Iron Woman • Margaret Deland
... of the salve on her forefinger and rubbed the baby's eyes with it, and then the mother bade her go and wash off any particle of salve that might be ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle
... the man backed Gusset into the hall, for he was following into the drawing-room, making him open his thick lips in fish like fashion once again as if to speak; but a prod in the ribs given by the sergeant's forefinger forced obedience, and he went out unwillingly ...
— The New Forest Spy • George Manville Fenn
... He went over to the bed, tilted up Jim's chin with his forefinger and looked straight into ...
— The Spoilers of the Valley • Robert Watson
... jumping to conclusions, felt suddenly thrilled, and he made up his mind that an early development in the case would be the taking of the impressions of Captain Beamish's right thumb and forefinger. ...
— The Pit Prop Syndicate • Freeman Wills Crofts
... the man, for he bowed politely, and seemed to expect the company. He was a tall, thin, and well-dressed man, and held in his hand a small package. Instantly upon his appearance every man in the room stuck his thumb and forefinger into his vest pocket, and pulling out a little piece of printed paper, said, "Sir, I called—" ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 9, May 28, 1870 • Various
... you, Kitty?" he said to his wife, handing to her the forefinger of his right hand by way of greeting. "Well, Sophy, my love;" and he kissed his daughter. "Oh! Lucius Mason. I am very glad to see you. I can't say I should have remembered you unless I had been told. You are very welcome in Harley Street, and I ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope
... a forefinger into his waistcoat pocket, and produced one of the hexagonal slugs of gold current ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White
... the man rapidly collapsed and died. At the post-mortem a traumatic aneurism the size of an orange was found in connection with an oval wound in the first portion of the left subclavian artery which admitted the tip of the forefinger. ...
— Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 • George Henry Makins
... gestures of her little forefinger, she told him all her dream of the angels and the swings and the singing and the music ... and of ...
— The Path of Life • Stijn Streuvels
... said Fanny. "No wonder that they look so little, for the book here says her forefinger is four feet long. Look at that figure on the top of the big building yonder. That Is Diana, the huntress. How tall ...
— The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam')
... up the Rigid Forefinger and warned him that he was merely a Grain of Dust and a Weakling and a poor juvenile Mutt whose Mission in Life was to ...
— Knocking the Neighbors • George Ade
... responses, and sometimes he leads them a little bit ahead of time," Dolph enlightened him. "Besides that, he keeps his lean forefinger on the word that Brenton happens to be reading, ready to help him out on the pronunciation, if it is necessary. Between whiles, he counts up the congregation and divides it by ten, to make sure that he gets the right amount of offertory. Really, he ...
— The Brentons • Anna Chapin Ray
... circle around the wheel; the mate is on the look-out over the bows; all at once, he shouts out: "There they are! the nets!" Down goes Picton's book on the deck; Bruce catches up a rope and fastens it to a large iron hook; the sailors run to the side of the vessel; captain releases his forefinger from baby's hand, and catches the wheel; all is excitement in a moment. "Starboard!" shouts the mate, as the nets come sweeping on, directly in front of the cut-water. The schooner obeys the wheel, sheers off, ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens
... you are to believe that I dozed and woke by snatches. I watched the moon descend in her foggy circle; but I saw also the mulberry face and minatory forefinger of Mr. Romaine, and caught myself explaining to him and Mr. Robbie that their joint proposal to mortgage my inheritance for a flying broomstick took no account of the working-model of the whole Rock and Castle of Edinburgh, which I dragged about by an ankle ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... me one day, a-setting of 's chin in 's thumb and forefinger (thou mind'st his solemn ways)—quoth he to me, "Lemon," quoth he, "would I knew why the Lord doth seem to look with a more bounteous favor on such as are farriers, than on such as be followers of other trades; for methinks, what with thee, and Turnip, and Job Long-pate, ...
— A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales • Amelie Rives
... he laughed again. Her air of severe worldly experience and that small warning forefinger ...
— Vagabondia - 1884 • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... came out of her house and called him, wishing to entrap him also, but he did not go near her, and said, "I will shoot you, if you will not bring my brother to life again." She touched the stone, though very unwillingly, with her forefinger, and he was immediately restored to his human shape. But the two gold-children rejoiced when they saw each other again, kissed and caressed each other, and rode away together out of the forest, the one home to his bride, and the ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers
... forefinger, and made them understand that that finger meant the length of their journey to Iala. Then with his other hand he touched his forefinger under the second joint to show how far they had travelled on their journey—not a ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews
... comfort than a very sensitive organization might find acceptable. The Master does not seem to like him much, for some reason or other,—perhaps he has a special aversion to the odor of tobacco. As his forefinger shows a little too distinctly that he uses a pen, I shall compliment him by calling him the Man of Letters, until I find ...
— The Poet at the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... of Weldon's safety, he ambled around the gray broncho in a clumsy circle. The gray broncho showed her appreciation of the attention by nipping viciously at the flank of his horse. By Weldon's left side, Kruger Bobs halted and pointed an accusing forefinger ...
— On the Firing Line • Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller
... forefinger upon the table. Upon his lips was a genial and tolerant smile. He had the air of a preceptor devoting special pains upon the most backward member of ...
— The Mischief Maker • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... of Jimmy Grayson swelled and towered, his hand was raised, the long forefinger pointed directly at the four who stood in the dazzling light, and the hall resounded with the tremendous echoes of his cry, "Thou ...
— The Candidate - A Political Romance • Joseph Alexander Altsheler
... forefinger of thy left hand on any figure in these lines," she commanded. "Now on another—yet again, for the third time. That is all thou hast to do. The rest is ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... he did not run away. Instead, he bobbed up inside of the negro's reach. The Mexican thrust out his slim, sinewy right-hand forefinger. A vicious poke he gave with it, landing sharply on a spot just about an inch and a quarter below the base of the negro's ...
— The Young Engineers on the Gulf - The Dread Mystery of the Million Dollar Breakwater • H. Irving Hancock
... his chin with his forefinger, which was probably a habit with him when puzzled, and stood looking down out of the corner of his eyes at ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... Examine a few of the many varieties of other kinds of starch granules, as in rice, arrowroot, etc. Press some dry starch powder between the thumb and forefinger, and note the ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell
... his cunning was of an exceptional order. From his coat pocket he brought forth a pill box. In this receptacle Shandy dipped a forefinger, and rubbed into the fresh cut of the leather a trifle of blackened axle grease which he had taken from a wagon wheel before starting out. Then he wiped the rein with his coat tail and ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser
... deliver him straightway over the walls such a tub of boiling water as shall scald the hair from his goatskin cloak. And, hark thee, do thou, in the first place, try the temperature of the kettle with thy forefinger, and that shall be thy penance for the trick thou hast ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott
... the day they first foregathered. The converts served as witnesses. Bill stood over the missionary, prompting him when he stumbled. Stockard put the responses in the woman's mouth, and when the time came, for want of better, ringed her finger with thumb and forefinger of ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London
... circumstances. The child, at any rate, appeared to be satisfied with his behavior; for when he had held it a considerable time, and set it down, it still favored him with its company, keeping fast hold of his forefinger till we reached the confines of the place. And on our return through the court-yard, after visiting another part of the establishment, here again was this same little Wretchedness waiting for its victim, with a smile of joyful, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... had been inserted in the budget for it. Keech brought me paper and pencil and I talked with the aid of diagrams, as engineers are wont to do. Although the pencils were small and I had to hold them between thumb and forefinger, as you would a needle, I was able to make many sensible observations ...
— Houlihan's Equation • Walt Sheldon
... the room to the fireplace. He took out his handkerchief, and, seizing a corner between a thumb and forefinger, slowly shook it ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 1 • Various
... orators conformed to types familiar to Bradley. There was the legal type, monotonously emphatic, with extended forefinger, which pointed, threatened and delineated. His speaking wore on the ear like a saw-filing. Then there was the political speaker, the stump orator, who was full of well-worn phrases, who could not mention the price of wool or the number of cotton bales without using ...
— A Spoil of Office - A Story of the Modern West • Hamlin Garland
... not an insult, Mr. Daunt. I intended it to be merely a frank expression of opinion. Just a moment, please!" he urged, breaking in on violent language. He brought his thumb and forefinger together to make a circle and poised his hand over his head. "I don't wear one of these. I have no right to wear one. Halo, I mean! I'm no prig or preacher—at least, I don't mean to be. But when I talk business I intend to talk it straight and use few words—and those words may sound rather ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... little Elma!" said Carrie, shaking her forefinger in a very knowing manner "She didn't like to tell about Sam, and so she made up that story, did she? Well, it was an untruth. She didn't spend that money on dress; she—well, I will tell you—I ...
— Wild Kitty • L. T. Meade
... twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely 5 pointing with his square forefinger. "I don't know that girl. ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell
... while the dark began to lighten, and Henry stopped short in surprise. Paul was walking in such automatic fashion that he almost ran against him before he stopped. Henry pointed with a long forefinger to a red spot ...
— The Forest Runners - A Story of the Great War Trail in Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler
... Anastasius, who stood at the window, and regarded them with astonished and sympathetic glances. The abbot nodded to him and laid his forefinger lightly upon his lips; he then hastily crossed the threshold ...
— Berlin and Sans-Souci • Louise Muhlbach
... first assume the position of a soldier or march at attention. Look the officer you are to salute straight in the eye. Then, when the proper distance separates you, raise the right hand smartly till the tip of the forefinger touches the lower part of the headdress or forehead above the right eye, thumb and fingers extended and joined, palm to the left, forearm inclined at about 45 deg., hand and wrist straight. Continue to look the officer you are saluting straight in the Eye and keep your hand in the position ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department
... hurry and do something about this," advised Elfreda, lightly touching the paper with her forefinger, "or it will be ...
— Grace Harlowe's Third Year at Overton College • Jessie Graham Flower
... called in by the simple process of the old man beckoning to me with his forefinger over the gate of his house as I happened to be driving past. ...
— Amy Foster • Joseph Conrad
... of Achilles? My boy, she is your sword-arm!" His sturdy forefinger ran along the line of frontier under his eye with little staccato leaps. "Eh?" he ...
— The Last Shot • Frederick Palmer
... at first that her eyes deceived her. She stole across the room and touched the key timidly with her forefinger to make sure. Then she lifted the lid a little way and let it fall again, looking over her shoulder as if fearing to hear a sharp voice from the stairs. Next, grown bolder, she opened the lid wide. There lay the red shawl, just ...
— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge
... to note The Ladies notes of me, but held my talke, With that Italionate Frenchman, and tooke time (Still as our conference serv'd) to shew my Courtship In the three quarter legge, and setled looke, The quicke kisse of the top of the forefinger, And other such exploytes of good Accost; All which the Ladies tooke into their eyes With such attention that their favours swarm'd About my bosome, in my hart, mine eares, In skarffes about my thighes, upon mine armes Thicke on my wristes, and thicker on my hands, ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III • Various
... are very rich," shouted the barkeeper, a beet-faced man whose huge girth was bound in a red cotton sash, and he made a gesture suggestive of coins, rubbing thumb and forefinger together. ...
— Rosinante to the Road Again • John Dos Passos
... have put in the centre of the cage, as part of the decorations, a stump of a tree, which was hollow, and contained a navy revolver and a bowie-knife. When he gave the command to Brutus to leap forward against the spears, Brinton stood alongside of the stump with one hand inside of it, his forefinger playing with the trigger of the revolver. The apprehension of a recurrence of the critical scene which has been narrated was however groundless. Brutus dutifully leaped forward and smashed the brittle spears, without ...
— The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877 • Various
... going into our Headquarters, when a shell burst in the Square and some fragments landed in our street taking off the fingers of his right hand. I was away at the time, but when I returned in the evening the signallers showed me a lonely (p. 291) forefinger resting on a window sill. They had reverently preserved it, as it was the finger which used to count out five-franc notes to them when they were going ...
— The Great War As I Saw It • Frederick George Scott
... the end of the thumb to the end of the forefinger (both extended)—about equivalent ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XX, 1621-1624 • Various
... on the top of the breech, with percussion pills or primings, and the tube, under the barrel, with the hollow cartridges containing gunpowder. Of these cartridges the tube will hold twenty-four. Place the forefinger in the ring which forms the end of the lever, e, and the thumb on the hammer, elevating the muzzle sufficiently to let the cartridge nearest the breech slip, by its gravity, into the carrier d; swing the lever forward, and raise the hammer which moves the breech-pin back, ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various
... whose name was Billy Hughes, and he looked just like you." I told him there were three boys of us; that we were sold to different parties, and that I had never seen either of my brothers since. One brother was named William, but went by the nickname of Billy. "Has this man had his forefinger cut off," asked I. "Oh!" replied he, "I don't know, Hughes, about that." "Well," said I, "this is all I remember about Billy. I accidentally chopped off his forefinger one day, when we were small boys in Virginia. This is the only thing by which I could identify ...
— Thirty Years a Slave • Louis Hughes
... Augustus, and the Scipios, and most other personages whose mausoleums have been conspicuous enough to attract the violator; and as for dead men's hair, I have seen a lock of King Edward the Fourth's, of a reddish-brown color, which perhaps was once twisted round the delicate forefinger of Mistress Shore. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 62, December, 1862 • Various
... particular—insist that he was begot by a devil in person, just as Merlin was, and Plato the philosopher, and puissant Alexander. Nobody knows anything about his origin." Guido was sitting upon the ground, his open pack between his knees. Between the thumb and forefinger of each hand he held caressingly a string of pearls which he inspected as he talked. "Nobody," he idly said, "nobody is very eager to discuss Count Eglamore's origin now that Eglamore has become indispensable to Duke Alessandro. Yes, it ...
— The Certain Hour • James Branch Cabell
... loosely, and placed it under Jan's head. Then he reached for his spoon, and proceeded to force down a little more warm whisky and milk beside the clenched jaws. One knew, by the way he lifted one of Jan's flews, raised the dog's head, and gently rubbed his gullet between thumb and forefinger to help the liquor down, that he had handled sick dogs before to-day. He had covered Jan's body with an old buffalo robe, and now he proceeded to fill a jar with boiling water, and placed that ...
— Jan - A Dog and a Romance • A. J. Dawson
... settynge of the foremost fynger crossewayes on the thombe, so that 80 dyffereth thus fro{m} 40, that for 80 the forefynger is set crosse on the thombe, and for 40 the thombe is set crosse ouer y^e forefinger. ...
— The Earliest Arithmetics in English • Anonymous
... yet to simply use one's forefinger. The tube is taken in the right hand, as shown in Fig. 3, and the forefinger placed over the aperture. The finger should be wetted in order to perfect its adherence, and should not be pressed too hard against the mouth of the tube. It is only necessary to plunge the apparatus a few inches ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 481, March 21, 1885 • Various
... most outrageous, high-handed,—" began Landover, explosively, but stopped short as Percival levelled his unlovely forefinger ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon
... followed on Billebedam's departure by heaping the dirty plates higher on the table and drumming a tattoo on the cleared space with his knuckles. Hutchinson snuffed the smoky candle and reflectively rubbed the soot from the wick between thumb and forefinger. ...
— The Faith of Men • Jack London
... board, while the thumb pushes the gage forward. The hand must not, under any circumstances, be used to move the gage along. In fact, it is not necessary for the fingers to be clasped around the gage stem, if the forefinger presses tightly against the cheekpiece, since the thumb performs all the operation of moving it along. Naturally, the hand grasps the tool in order to hold it down against the material, and to bring it back for a ...
— Carpentry for Boys • J. S. Zerbe
... Lord James made no reply, but stood ruminating, with the forefinger of his left hand pressing his nether ...
— Ringan Gilhaize - or The Covenanters • John Galt
... replied by a shake of her head and a raised forefinger of reproval. "Now, Johnny, I won't answer a single question till you smooth out those lines between ...
— The Fruit of the Tree • Edith Wharton
... teacher's head to a sky-light in the roof. Gray's utterance was rather hesitant. He would catch for his word often, reiterating meanwhile the article, "the-a, the-a, the-a," his gaze meanwhile fixed upon the sky-light, and a nervously gyrating forefinger raised high and brightly illuminated. The thought suggested was that he had a prompter on the roof to whom he was distressfully appealing to supply the true phrase. For Professor Gray the truth was in the top rather than the bottom of the well. Though sometimes long in coming it was the right ...
— The Last Leaf - Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America - and Europe • James Kendall Hosmer
... and Loveit, half afraid of his contempt, and half afraid of Tarlton's ridicule, stood doubtful, and again had recourse to his battledore, which he balanced most curiously upon his forefinger. "Look at him!—now do look at him!" cried Tarlton; "did you ever in your life see anybody look so silly?—Hardy has him quite under his thumb; he's so mortally afraid of Parson Prig, that he dare not, for the soul of him, turn either of his ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth
... mills?" I asked the child with the white head. She stuck her forefinger in her mouth, looked shyly ...
— The Youth's Companion - Volume LII, Number 11, Thursday, March 13, 1879 • Various
... got up and, going to the fire, sprinkled over the flames six drachms of belladonna, three drachms of drosera and one ounce of nux vomica; using in each case his left hand. Returning to his former position he drew with the forefinger of his left hand, on the ground, the outline of a club-foot; a hand with the fingers clenched and a long pointed thumb standing upright; and a bat. At his request Kelson and Curtis carefully imitated the devices, each in the space allotted ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell
... and I sought I come now so to go home viss mine hussbandt." There, at last, she smiled, and to make the caressing pride of her closing tone still prettier, lifted her figured muslin out sidewise between thumb and forefinger of each hand with even ...
— Strong Hearts • George W. Cable
... the king, tapping his forehead with his forefinger, 'I have it all. I've found her out. Don't you see it, queen? Princess Makemnoit has ...
— Adela Cathcart, Vol. 1 • George MacDonald |
