Heelful

It took several dozen "heelsful," winding it round the gathering ball on the leg, as one would wind a ball of string.

Away the boy ran, never minding a stubbed toe or a heelful of thistles that waylaid his course, and, setting the broken fence-cap against a rail, came panting back.

But people who dig in their heels frequently wind up digging their own graves behind them, heelful by heelful, as, in this hypothetical example, Johnson & Johnson climbs higher and higher.

"Gonna go clean it up, Mr. Barry," he chimes, and goes dancing back toward the bus, kicking up heelfuls of sand as he goes, with the flames of the fire reflected flickering on the back of his shiny, bald skull.