Mary'S Lamb

The "Mary" that "had a little lamb" was a Massachusetts girl; and her lamb was one of twins, thrust out of the pen by its unnatural mother.

Mary took it home, and cared for it; and it became a great pet in the family. One morning when it was to be taken to pasture, it could nowhere be found; but as Mary went singing on her way to school, it heard her voice, and followed her.

At the schoolhouse door, for fear it would stray away, she picked it up, and managed to carry it secretly to her desk, where it lay quietly covered with her shawl until she was called to her spelling-class, when the lamb got up, and pattered after her. The children laughed, and the teacher reproved, until her explanation was given, when he very kindly allowed her to take her pet home.

It happened on that morning that a young man named Rowlston, the son of a riding-master in Boston, who was fitting himself for Harvard, was at school; and a few days after, he produced three verses of the poem. How it ever came to be published, Mary did not know; for the young man died soon after, ignorant of the immortality of his verses.

The lamb lived many years, and came to its death by the horns of an angry cow.