Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1908-12-03
LEGEND OF THE LAMB.

My great grandparents lived at Leg
horn, and my mother was their eldest
and favorite grandchild. From all she
told me herself I deduce that they
spoiled her. l never knew either of
my grandmothers, and | have always
regretted it deeply, because l think
that, had they lived, there would have
been some one in the world to pet and
spoil me.
My great grandparents were
wealthy, though they lived in simple
style My great grandmother was an
unusually economical woman, for
Italians are not as rule model house
keepers, but she was as thrifty as a
New England farmers wife.
Part of the year they spent on
large estate, where my mother would
remain with them for months. That
was the happiest time of her life. Her
grandmother excused in her what she
never excused in any one else, and
her grandfather granted her every
wish. Sometimes he got into trouble
by doing so, for my mother was as
fond of animals as she was Of dolls,
and pets introduce into a household
an element of disorder of which my
great grandmother sincerely disap-
proved. But though she would re-
proach my great grandfather for hav-
ing allowed some stray cat and dog to
be brought home, still she did not de-
prive her little granddaughter of the
newly acquired treasure.
Once her grandfather took my
mother with him on a visit to one of
the peasant houses that belonged to
him. The shepherds had just come
down from the mountains with large
focks of sheep, and the natural result
of this was that my mother asked for
a little lamb.
ooh, Harriet" said her grandfather,
what will your grandmamma say?
You'll want to have the lamb in the
house, and you know that she will
scold Besides, the lamb will soon
grow big, and then what will you do?"
The child evaded the question. She
knew she would gain her point if she
only kept on coax;ng.
please, grandpapa, let me have the
lamb! Please, grandpapa, let me
have the lamb! Please, grandpapa,
let me have the lamb"
Her grandfather gave in at last,
and they drove home with a little
LAMB nesting in my mothers lap.
But as they neared the villa her
grandfather began to have qualms of
conscience. He was afraid of what
might be said when they reached the
house with new pet, after it had
been distinctly understood that such a
thing would never happen again. He
tried to gain time, and persuaded my
mother not to take the lamb in at
once, but to let him take it down to
the vault, where he was to deposit
some money several peasants had
paid for rent.
There were subterranean passages
and vaults, and in one of these my
great grandfather had a safe in which
he used to keep the money paid by
the tenants. Sometimes considerable
sums were locked away there.
You cannot, Of course, have an old
house with vaults and subterranean
passages without having ghost; and,
in fact, a we'll developed ghost was
said to inhabit these premises. The
story connected with it was duly har
rowing. They said that many years
ago woman and her baby had been
buried alive there, and that on certain
| nights the moaning of the mother and
the wailing of the child could be dis
tinctly heard Of course the family
did not believe it, but the peasants
did.
My mother and her grandfather ar.
rived at the villa at night, and. With