Year: 1877

There Is hardly a child in the broad
the verses, "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
nor a college student but has sung them
to a dozen different tunes. II has been
parodied, paraphrased and translated
into the dead languages. And yet scarce
any ono knows who is the author
or whether it Is fictitious or founded on
fact. But it Is the true account of an
incident that happened in 1914, not fifty
miles from the Cradle of Liberty, ara
Mary" a delightful old lady of three
score and ten, still lives and cherlshes
the memory of the event The writer,
on recent visit, craved from her own
lips the true story of the affair, and will
reproduce it.


&" 1t was when / was nine years old, ="
she said, and we lived upon the farm,
l used to go out to the barn every morn
ing with father to see the COWS and
sheep. They all knew me, and the COWS,
old Broad and Shorthorn and Brindle,
would low n good morning when ] came
to their stables. One cold day we found
that during the night twin lambs had
been born. You know that sheep will
often disown one Of twins, and this
cold morning one poor little lamb was
pushed out of the pen into the yard.
was almost starved and almost frozen,
and father told me ] might have it if
could make it live. So 1 took it into
the house, wrapped it in blanket, and
fed it on peppermint and milk all day
When night came could not bear to
leave it for fear it would die, so mother
made me up little bed on the settle
and nursed the poor thing ali night,
feeding it with a spoon, and by morning
it could stand After this we brought
it up by hand until it grew to love me
very much, and would stay with me
wherever l went unless it was tied. l
used before going to school in the morn
ing to see that the lamb was all right
and securely fastened for the day. Well,
one morning when my brother Nat and
I were ali ready, the lamb could not be
found, and, supposing that it had gone
out to pasture with the cows, we started
on. ! used TO be great singer, and the
lamb would follow the sound of my voice.
This morning, after we had gone some
distance, began to sing, and the lamb,
hearing me, followed on and over
took us before we got to the
sehool-house As it happened, we were
early, so l went IN very quietly, took the
lamb into my seat, where it went TO
sleep, and | covered itup with my shawl.
When the teacher came, and the rest of
the scholars, they did not notice any
thing amiss, and all was quiet until my
spelling class was called. I had hardly
taken my place before the patting of lit
tie feet was heard coming down the aisle,
and the lamb stood beside me ready for
its word. OF course the children all
laughed, and the teacher laughed, too,
and the poor creature had to be turned
out of doors But it kept coming back,
aud at last it had to be tied in the wood
shed until night. Now, that day, there
was a yodng man in school, John Rouls-
ton, of Boston, who was ON visit to one
of the boys, and came as spectator. He
was very much pleased over what he saw
in our school, and few days after gave
us the first three verses of the song
How or when 1T got into print l don't
know"


Thus she ran on, telling Of the care
she bestowed on her pet until it grew
to be sheep, and she would curl its long
wool over a stick and it bore lambs un-
til there was flock of five all her own
and finally how it was killed by an angry
COW. Then she brought out pair of
her little-girl stockings, knitted of yarn
spun from the lambs wool, the heels Of
which had been ravelled out and given
away piecemeal, as mementoes. No one
can doubt that she, whose youth was
rendered famous by love fol an unfortu-
nate animal, has lived a life of beniti-
cence and charity. With heart over
flowing with love toward all Gods crea-
lures, she has indeed lived 10 care for
! the needy and destitute, and be moth