The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-09-22
Mary who had the Little Lamb.

Mrs. Mary +. Tyler, who lives in Somer-
vile, Mass, has given the Boston Globe the
following story of the original ''little lamb:"
'One cold, bleak March morning went
out with father, and after the cows had been
fed we went to the sheep-pen and found two
lambs there which had been born in the
night. One Of them had been forsaken by
its mother, and through neglect was about
dead from the cold and for want of food l
got it into the house and worked upon moth
er's sympathies. 1t couldn't at first swallow,
and the catnip tea had mother make for my
sick friend it could not take for long time
got the lamb warm the first thing, which
was done by wrapping her in an old garment
and holding her in my arms beside the fire.
place. All day long / nursed the lamb, and
at night it could swallow Just little. o.
how pleased 1 was. But wasn't then salts
fed it would live and sat up all night with
it fearing it wouldn't be warm enough unless
there was some one there to look out for its
comfort. In the morning, much to my girl
ish delight, it could stand then it improved
rapidly, soon learned to drink milk, and
from the time it could walk about it would
follow me anywhere IL / only called il. 1t
was fast grower, as symmetrical sheep as
ever walked. and its fleece was Of the finest
and whiteSt.
"The day the lamb went to school hadn't
seen her previous to starting off, and not
wanting to 60 withoutlgetting her, l called.
She readily recognized my voice, and soon
| heard faint bleating way down the field.
More and more distinctly l could hear IL, and
l knew my pet was coming to greet me. My
brother Nate said, Let's take the lamb to
school with u.s.
Il thought It would be a good idea, and l
consented and she followed along right be-
hind me. There was high stone wall to
climb, and 1t was rather hard work to get the
lamb over. We got her on top, then clam
ored over to take her down, and she stood
just as patiently as cold be, waiting for us 70
take her off the wall.
"When the school house was reached, the
teacher had not arrived, and but few schol-
ars were there. Then began to think what
l should do with the lamb while school was
in session, took her down to my seat-you
know we had old-fashioned, high, boarded
up seats then. Well, put the lamb under
down just as quietly as could be- By and by
| had to go out to recite, and left the lamb all
right, but in moment there was a clatter.
clatter, clatter, on the floor, and | knew it
was the patterlng OF the hoofs Of my lamb.
Oh how mortified felt. The teacher was
Miss Polly Kimball who was the mother Of
Loring, the circulating library man Of Bos-
ton. She laughed outright, and of course, all
the children giggled It was rare sport for
them, but couldn't find anything mirthful
in the situation. | was too embarrassed and
ashamed to laugh or even smile at the UNI
looked-for appearance Of my sheep out on
the hoOr. took the lamb out and put it in
shed until | was ready to 60 home at noon,
when 1t followed me back. Usually did
not go home until night, as we carried our
lunch with us, but thought l would go at
noon that day.
Visiting the school that forenoon was a
young man named John Roulstone, who was
a nephew of the Rev. Lemuel Capin, who
was then settled in Sterling. He was fitting
for college. The young man was much
day he rode across the fields on horseback,
came to the little old school house, and
handed me slip Of paper which had written
upon it three verses, which are the original
verses added by Mrs Townsend. The