MARY AND HER LITTLE LAMB

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1981, 27 October 1888, Page 3

MARY AND HER LITTLE LAMB

Moat of oar readers will be surprised to bear that the well-known nursery aong of " Mary had a little lamb" is a true Btory, and lhat " Maty" is still living. About 70 years ago she was a little girl, the daughter of a farmer In Worcester aouoty, Massachusetts. She was very fond of going with her father into the fields to see the sheep, and one day they found a baby-lamb which was thought to be dead. Klnd-he»rtad little Mary, however, lifted It up In her arms, aDd as It seemed to breathe she oarrled it home, made it a warm bed near the stove, and nursed It tenderly. Great was her delight whenafter weeks of oaref nl feeding and watching her little patient began to grow well and ■trong, and Boon after it was able to run about, I', knew ita young miatreis per? feotly, always came at her call, and was happy only when at her side. One day it followed her to the village tehool, and not knowing what else to do with It, Bhe pat it under her desk and oovered It with her shawl. There it stayed until Mary wn called op to the tsaoher's desk to Bay her lesson, and then the lamb walked quietly after her, and the other children burst out laughing. So the tesoher had to ihat the little girl's pet m the wood■bed till Bohool was out. Soon after this • yocng student, named John Roll- - itont, wro'o a little poem about Mary and her lamb, and presented it to her. The lamb grew to be a aheep, and lived for many y«ars, and when at last it died Mary grieved so muoh for it ihat her motner took some of its wool, which was " m white as snow," and knitted a pair of stookings for her, to wear m remembrance of her darling. Some years after the lamb's death, Mrs Sarah Hall, ft "Otlebrated woman who wrote books, oom posed some verses about Mary's lamb, and added them to these written by John Rollatone, making the complete poem as we know it. Mary took such good care of the stockings made of her lamb's fleece that when she was a grown-up woman the gave one of them to a church fair In Boston. As soon as it. became known that the stocking was made from the fiject of *' Mary's little lamb," every one wanted a piece of It ; so the stocking was ravelled oat, and the yarn tfft into short pieces, Koch piece was tied to a card on whloh "Mtry" wrote her full name, and that* cards cold so well that tW brought the large sum 61 one hundred and forty dollars to the old South Ohuioh.