The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-06-12
HISTORIAN SHOWS THAT
"MARY'S LAMB" WAS REAL

Mary's little lamb was not a myth
it was an actually. Charles E. Cha
deayne of Ossining, N. Y, is the au
thority, and he backs it up with proofs
of the little creatures origin, life, de-
pertinent and, above all, its experience
in school on that well remembered day.
The information concerning the ia
nous animal is CLEANED from extensive
researches made upon the collection of
curios belonging to Mr.. Chadeayne. EX-
hibits in this collection demonstrate to
a certainty that the lamb was born in
1917 in Sterling, Mass, where Mary
(surname Sawyer lived with her par
ents The lamb destined to be SO wide
ly known was in its earliest hours in
frail health, says New York letter to
the Chicago Tribune.
Several lambs had been born at about
the same time, and Mary made visit
to the fold with her papa.
Mary" said her father, that lamb
is dead
mo, papa" replied the little girl,
for when l nave it's head it will move
it back again"
But it cannot live" said her father.
"Oh, yes, maybe it cam replied
Mary. Let me take it home and nurse
it and tend it.
To this Mary's father consented. So
Mary took her little lamb and carried it
home and warmed it and fed it. And
from that moment the poem that every
body knows was assured.
The little girls pet was so grateful
to it's benefactor that it could hardly
bear to have her out of it's sight But
Mary must go to school, you know, and
so here had TO be a separation for sew
eral hours every day. But Mary always
said a long goodbye to it every morn
ing. Once in a hurry this farewell
slipped her mind until she got consider
able distance from the house.
And that is how it came about that
Mary took the lamb to school, and how
the poetry spoken by every chick and
child in America was inspired. To be
sure, the poem says that cit followed
her to school one day" Well, that can't
be helped. Facts are facts. despite
poets.
When Mary remembered that she
hadn't paid parting visit to the lamb
she hurried right back as quick as she
could. She had q little sound that she
made that was half way between a
scream and song, and no matter where
the lamb was when it heard that sound
it would run to Mary. AS she fastened
homeward she made that little sound
and sure enough here came the lamb. 1t
looked up so pleadingly that Mary just
couldn't take it back to the house. and
SO she wrapped it up in her shawl and
took it along to school.
She put it, still wrapped in the shawl,
under her seat, and she never studied so
hard in her life as she did that morn
ing. She did not want the teacher to
look her way for fear she would see the
lamb. But when the time came to say
lessons the scholars in Mary's class had
to go out and stand along a certain
crack in the floor. And what should
happen but the moment that Mary
started the lamb started, too, and went
right forward and stood on the crack
with Mary.
John Rollestone was the poet who
framed the original verses. This man of
letters appears to have been a sort of
New England Keats, for he was at that
time not more than II years old. He
was studying under the guidance of the
village parson, and as soon as he heard
about the lamb incident he saw at once
that here was his opportunity.
In a kind of divine frenzy he dashed
off the stanzas which relate of the lamb
being sure to- go where Mary did. and
following her to school, and about it
about it being against the rules, and
about the teacher turning it out, and
about it waiting outside until Mary
came out.
This effort contained only three STAN
zas and no more, Mary said in the late
sos just before her death, and consti-
tuted the poem as it was stricken from
the white hot anvil of John Rollestone's
inspiration. So far as Mary knew,
Rollestone wrote no more regarding the
adventures of the lamb. 1t was not
until several years later that Mary read
in a newspaper some verses accredited
to Mrs. Sara ]. Hale, and entitled
"Mary's Little Lamb" Mrs. Hale had
used the Rollestone stanzas, with one or
two slight chances, and to them had
added three.
Mary survived her lamb by about
sixty-five years, passing away in Som
erville, Mass, at the age of SO, having
in the meantime married a man named
Tyler