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THE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL," "THE STORY
OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES,"
"THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES," "THE SIX
BUNKERS SERIES," ETC.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I THE LAMB'S WISH
II THE JOLLY SAILOR
III A HOME ON SHORE
IV SLIDING DOWNHILL
V IN GREAT DANGER
VI DOWN THE COAL HOLE
VII THE LAMB CARRIED AWAY
VIII SAILING DOWN THE BROOK
IX ON A LOAD OF WOOD
X MIRABELL IS HAPPY
CHAPTER I
THE LAMB'S WISH
Out of his box the Jack popped his head. The funny, black fringe of
whiskers around his face jiggled up and down. His queer, big eyes looked
around the store.
"Hurray!" cried the Jack in the Box. "We are alone at last and now we
can have some fun! Hurray!"
"Are you sure?" asked a Bold Tin Soldier, who stood at the head of a
company of his men in a large box.
"Am I sure of what?" inquired the Jack, as he swung to and fro on the
spring which made him pop out of the box.
"Are you sure we are alone?" went on the Soldier. "It would be too bad
if we should come to life when any one could see us."
"There is no one in the department but us toys," said a Calico Clown,
and he banged together some shiny cymbals on the ends of his arms. "The
Jack is right--we are all by ourselves."
"I am glad of it," said a woolly Lamb on Wheels, who stood on the floor,
just under the edge of the toy counter. She was rather too large to be
up among the smaller toys. "Yes, I am glad of it," went on the Lamb. "I
have kept still all day, and now I have something to tell you all, my
friends."
"Something nice?" asked a Candy Rabbit, who stood next to a Monkey on a
Stick.
"I think it is nice," said the Lamb. "But, as you know, I could not move
about or speak so long as any of the clerks or customers were here."
"That's so," agreed the Bold Tin Soldier.
For it was one of the rules of Toyland, as you know, that none of the
folk who lived there could do anything while human eyes were watching
them. The Dolls, Soldiers, Clowns, Rocking Horses, Lambs were not able
to move, talk, or make believe come to life if a boy or a girl or any
one at all looked at them.
"But now we are alone we can have some fun," said the Jack in the Box.
"Let's have a jumping race, to see who can go the farthest. Come on! I'm
ready!"
"Yes, you are always ready to jump out of your box as soon as the cover
is taken off," remarked the Lamb on Wheels. "But the rest of us are not
such high kickers as you are. I cannot jump at all. I can only run
around on my wheels, just as the White Rocking Horse, who used to live
here, could only go on his rockers."
"Well, what shall we do then?" asked the Jack. "I'm ready to do
anything."
"Suppose we have the Calico Clown play us a little tune on his cymbals,"
suggested the Bold Tin Soldier. "My men and I like to hear his music.
After that we will march around and then--"
"Then we must listen to what the Lamb has to say," cried the Monkey on a
Stick. "She said she had something to tell us."
"Oh, excuse me," came from the Bold Tin Soldier Captain, with a wave of
his shiny sward. "Perhaps you want to tell us your story now, Miss
Lamb?"
"No," she answered. "Later will do. It is not exactly a story--it is more
of a wish. But first I should like to listen to the Calico Clown."
"All right! Here we go!" cried the jolly Clown. He was a gaily dressed
fellow, and his calico suit was of many colors. One leg was red and
another yellow, and his shirt was spotted and speckled and striped.
The Calico Clown stood up near the box where the Bold Tin Soldier was
ready to lead his men in a march. And the Clown banged together his
shiny cymbals.
"Bang! Bung! Bang! Bung!" clanged the cymbals, making music that the Toy
Folk liked to hear, though I cannot say you would have cared much for
it.
"Now it is your turn to march, Captain!" called the Candy Rabbit. "Show
us what you and your men can do. That will amuse us." "All right!"
agreed the Bold Tin Soldier. "Attention, men!" he cried, "Ready!
Shoulder arms! Forward--March!"
Out of their box, following their Captain, came the tin soldiers. Around
and around the toy counter they marched, the Calico Clown making music
for them on his cymbals.
"Isn't this jolly!" cried the Monkey on a Stick.
Once more around the toy counter marched the Bold Tin Soldier and his
men. They were careful not to get too near the edge, for they did not
want to fall off.
"There, how did you like it?" asked the Captain, as his men stopped to
rest.
"It was fine!" answered the Candy Rabbit. "Now we will listen to the
Lamb on Wheels."
"Oh, I'm sure I haven't so very much to say," said the white, fuzzy toy.
"But I was thinking, to-day, of the Sawdust Doll, and--"
"Do you mean the Sawdust Doll who used to live here with us ?" asked the
Calico Clown. "Excuse me for interrupting you," he said politely, "but I
just couldn't help it. I was thinking of the Sawdust Doll myself. And I
was wondering if you meant the same one that used to be here."
"Yes," answered the Lamb, "I did. It was of her I was thinking. She was
on our toy counter about the same time the White Rocking Horse lived
with us."
"And she went away just before he did," said the Monkey on a Stick. "The
Sawdust Doll comes back, once in a while, to see us. But the Rocking
Horse does not."
"It is harder for him than for her," said the Lamb. "The little girl,
whose mother bought the Sawdust Doll, often brings her back to see us.
And the Sawdust Doll once told me she had a lovely home with a little
girl named Dorothy."
"And I think I heard her say that the White Rocking Horse lived in the
same house with her, and belonged to a boy named Dick," said the Bold
Tin Soldier.
"Yes, that is true," said the Lamb. "Well, what I was going to tell you
about was a little girl who came in to look at me to-day. She was one of
the nicest little girls I ever saw--fully as nice as the Dorothy who has
the Sawdust Doll."
"And did this little girl buy you--or did her mother ?" asked the Calico
Clown. "I should hate to see you leave us," he went on. "Of course we
want you to get a nice home, but it will be lonesome if you, too, go
away." "That's so," said the Bold Tin Soldier. "We have lost our Sawdust
Doll and our White Rocking Horse, and now, if the Lamb on Wheels goes
away from us--dear me!"
"I have no idea of going away!" answered the Lamb. "All I was going to
say was that a beautiful little girl came to the toy department to-day
with her mother, and she admired me very much--the little girl did. She
patted my back so softly, and she rubbed my head and she asked her
mother to buy me."
"And did she ?" asked the Calico Clown.
"No, I think not," replied the Lamb. "At least, if she did, I was not
taken away. But I wish, oh, how I wish I could get into a nice home,
such as the Sawdust Doll has."
"I trust you will get your wish," said the Calico Clown. "And I think we
all have the same wish--that we will have kind boys and girls to own us
when we go from here. But now let us be jolly. I'll tell you a funny
riddle."
"Oh, yes, please do!" begged the Lamb. "I love riddles!"
"Let me see, now," mused the Calico Clown, softly banging together his
cymbals. "I think I'll ask you the riddle about the pig. What makes more
noise than a pig under a gate?"
"What kind of gate?" asked the Monkey on a Stick.
"It doesn't make any difference what kind of gate," said the Clown.
"I should think it would," the Monkey stated. "And while you are about
it, why don't you tell us what kind of pig it is?"
"That doesn't make any difference either," said the Clown. "The riddle
is what makes more noise than a pig under a gate."
"Excuse me, but I should think it would make a great deal of
difference," went on the Monkey. "A big pig under a small gate would
make more noise than a little pig under a big gate. If we only knew the
size of the gate and what kind of pig it was, we might guess the
riddle."
"Hark! I hear a noise! Some one is coming!" cried the Bold Tin Soldier,
and all the toys became as quiet as mice.
CHAPTER II
THE JOLLY SAILOR
The noise which the toys had heard, and which had made them all stop
talking, causing them to become as quiet as mice--this noise seemed to
be coming nearer and nearer. It was a rolling, rumbling sort of noise.
"Can that be the watchman?" whispered the Calico Clown to the Bold Tin
Soldier.
"I hardly think so," was the answer. "He tramps along differently, his
feet making a noise like the beat of a drum. This is quite another
sound. But we had better keep still until we see what it is."
So all the toys kept quiet, and the noise came nearer and nearer and
nearer, and then, all of a sudden, there rolled along the floor a toy
Elephant on roller skates.
"Hello! Hello there, my toy friends!" cried the Elephant through his
trunk. "How are you all? And where is the White Rocking Horse? I'll have
a race with him. I tried to the other night, but one of my roller skates
jiggled off and then the watchman came and the race could not be run.
Where is the Rocking Horse?"
"Why, didn't you hear?" asked the Clown, as he sat up, for the toys knew
it would be all right now to move about and talk as they had been doing.
"Didn't I hear what?" asked the Elephant, sliding around on his roller
skates. "I hear a lot of things," he went on, "but these skates make so
much racket I can't hear very well when I have them on. They don't
really belong to me," he said, looking at the Candy Rabbit. "I just
borrowed them from the sporting section, as I did before, to race with
the White Rocking Horse."
"Well, you might have saved yourself the trouble," said the Monkey on a
Stick. "The White Rocking Horse isn't here any more. He was sold."
"Dear me!" exclaimed the Elephant. "That's too bad! Then I can't have a
race."
"Unless you want to race with the Lamb on Wheels," said the Bold Tin
Soldier. "She has wheels on her feet almost like your roller skates.
Will you race with her?"
"Thank you, I don't believe I care to race," put in the Lamb. "I am not
used to it. And I might break a leg, and then that nice little girl, who
was petting me to-day, would not want to buy me. I had better not race."
"Just as you like," came from the Elephant. "But I am sorry that my
friend, the White Rocking Horse, has gone. I wonder if I shall ever see
him again."
And the Elephant did see the Rocking chap later on, as you may read in
the book telling "The Story of the White Rocking Horse." It was in a Toy
Hospital where they met, after each had had many adventures.
"Well, if we are not going to have a race, what shall we do?" asked the
Calico Clown.
"Suppose you tell us another riddle," said the Bold Tin Soldier.
"Let the Monkey on a Stick, the Jack in the Box and the Candy Rabbit
have a jumping race!" proposed the Lamb. "They are all good jumpers."
"Oh, yes!" cried all the other toys. "A jumping race would be fine!"
"I'm ready!" said the Jack in the Box, waving to and fro on the end of
his long, slender spring.
"So am I," said the Monkey, as he climbed to the top of his stick.
"Well, I suppose I shall have to do my best," said the Candy Rabbit.
"Clear a place on the counter, and we'll try some jumps."
The Bold Tin Soldier and his men soon cleared a place on the toy counter
so that the Jack, the Monkey and the Rabbit would have plenty of room.
The building blocks, the checkers and the dominoes were moved out of the
way, and then the Calico Clown took his place, ready to count "One! Two!
Three!" so the three toys would know when it was time to jump.
"I'm allowed to come out of my box, am I not?" asked the Jack.
"Oh, of course," said the Lamb on Wheels. "It would not be fair to have
you jump and carry your box with you. You may come out."
So the Jack jumped out of his box and took his place next to the Monkey,
who also came down off his stick. I wish you could have seen how nimble
they were, but, really, it is not allowed. The minute you looked at any
of the toys they stopped moving at once.
"Are you all ready?" asked the Calico Clown, banging his cymbals
together. "If so--go!"
Away jumped the Candy Rabbit! Away jumped the Monkey! Away leaped the
Jack who lived in a Box. At the far end of the toy counter the Bold Tin
Soldier and his men had placed some sofa cushions from the upholstery
department. That was in case either of the three might stumble and fall.
"Look at the Jack jump!" exclaimed the Calico Clown.
"And see the Monkey sail through air," remarked the Lamb on Wheels.
"But the Candy Rabbit is doing best of all," said the Bold Tin Soldier.
And really the Rabbit was the best jumper of the three. In fact, he
jumped so far that he sailed over the edge of the counter. And only that
a sofa cushion fell, at the same time, to the floor, so that the Candy
Rabbit landed on the soft, feathery thing, he might have hurt himself.
"The Candy Rabbit wins! The Candy Rabbit wins the jumping race!" cried
the Calico Clown, banging together his cymbals.
"Yes, he is the best jumper," agreed the Monkey and the Jack, who had
jumped only to the end of the toy counter.
"Oh, I'm sure you two could do as well if you had only had more
practice," said the Candy Rabbit, who was a nice, modest sort of chap.
"Shall we try it again?" asked the Jack, who really thought he was a
fine jumper.
"There will not be time," said the Bold Tin Soldier. "I can see the sun
coming up. Soon the store will begin to fill with clerks and shoppers,
and we must lie as still and quiet as if we never had moved or talked.
To-morrow night we shall have more fun."
A little later the girls and young ladies who worked at the toy counters
and shelves came in to get ready for customers.
Soon the people began coming in to look at the toys. The Lamb on Wheels
stood on the floor just under the counter. She was rather a large lamb,
over a foot high--that is, she was large for a toy lamb, though of
course real ones are larger than that when they grow up.
"I wonder if I shall see that nice little girl to-day," thought the
Lamb, as she heard the hum and buzz of the shoppers. "I hope I may. And
I hope I get as nice a home as the Sawdust Doll has."
She stood up straight and stiff, on her legs, did the Lamb. Her feet
were fast to a wooden platform, and under that were wheels, so the Lamb
could be rolled along from place to place. At night, when no one was
looking at her, the Lamb could move along on the wheels by herself. But
now she was very still and quiet, staring straight ahead as the dolls
stared.
"I wonder what will happen to me to-day," thought the Lamb on Wheels
again.
Through the toy department came striding a jolly-looking man who, when
he walked, seemed to swing from side to side.
"What ho!" cried the jolly man, as he stopped at the toy counter. "I
want to buy something!" he added. "I'm a sailor, just back from a long
sea voyage, and I have plenty of money! I want to buy a toy!"
"What kind of toy?" asked the girl behind the counter. "We have many
kinds here," and she smiled at the sailor. He was so jolly no one could
help smiling at him. "We have Bold Tin Soldiers," went on the girl. "We
have Calico Clowns, Candy Rabbits, a Monkey on a Stick, and a Lamb on
Wheels, and lots of things."
"Hum! those are all very nice toys," said the jolly sailor. "But I think
I'd like to look at the Lamb on Wheels."
"There she is, right in front of you, on the floor," said the girl.
"Oh, ho! So this is the Lamb on Wheels!" cried the jolly sailor as he
picked her up. "Well, this seems just the toy I want. I'll take her!
I'll buy this Lamb on Wheels!"
"Oh, dear me!" thought the Lamb, for she knew what was going on, even
though she dared not move by herself, or speak, "if this sailor buys me
he'll take me on an ocean trip and I'll be seasick! Oh, dear, this is
going to be dreadful!"
CHAPTER III
A HOME ON SHORE
The jolly sailor held in his hands the Lamb on Wheels. He looked her
over carefully, and rubbed her warm, woolly sides. Though his hand was
not as soft as was that of the little girl who had stroked the Lamb the
day before, yet the sailor was gentle in his touch.
"Well, I suppose there is no use thinking any longer of having a home
like the one the Sawdust Doll got, with her little girl mistress to love
her," said the Lamb on Wheels to herself. "I am to be taken away by this
sailor--away out to sea. I never could stand sailing, anyhow. Oh, dear!
why do I have to go?"
"Does she squeak?" asked the sailor of the clerk, as he held the Lamb in
his hands.
"Oh, no. She isn't that kind of Lamb," answered the clerk, with a laugh.
"She is just a Lamb on Wheels, and she has real wool on her back and
sides and legs. She does not squeak or go baa-a-a-a, and if you want her
to move you have to pull her along."
"Well, I was going to get a Lamb that squeaked," went on the sailor,
"but I suppose this one will do just as well."
"We have a Calico Clown who bangs his cymbals together when you press on
his stomach or chest," said the girl. "See this toy! Maybe you would
like this!"
She picked up the Calico Clown in his gaily colored suit, and, pressing
on him in the middle, she made him bang his cymbals together.
"That is a jolly toy," said the sailor. "Let me see it."
He took up the Calico Clown, and did as the girl clerk had done.
"Bing! Bang! Bung!" went the cymbals.
"Oh, I hope he buys me," thought the Clown. "I should love to go to sea
on a ship."
But the sailor appeared to like the Lamb on Wheels best. He took her up
again, and the Lamb, who had begun to hope that she might not have to go
to sea, felt sad again.
"I'll take this Lamb on Wheels," said the sailor. "How much is it?" and
he pulled out his pocketbook, as he tucked the lamb under his arm.
"Oh, I must wrap it up for you," said the girl. "You are not supposed to
take things from the store unless they are wrapped. I'll get a large
piece of paper for the Lamb."
And while the clerk was gone the sailor walked about, looking at some
bicycles and velocipedes at the far end of the toy department. Thus the
Lamb and her friends were left by themselves for a moment or two, with
no one to look at them. This was just the chance the Lamb wanted. She
could talk now.
"Oh, just think of where I am going to be taken!" she said to the Calico
Clown. "Off to sea!"
"Real jolly, I call it!" said the Clown. "I wish he had picked me for
the trip."
"And I wish he had taken me," put in the Bold Tin Soldier. "I have
always longed for a sea trip."
"Well, I wish either of you had gone in my place," said the Lamb on
Wheels, a bit sadly. "Now I shall never see the Sawdust Doll or the
White Rocking Horse again."
"You must make the best of it," said the Monkey on a Stick. "I know what
sailors are--I have heard of them. They like to have monkeys and parrots
for pets--that is, real ones, not toys such as we are. But sailors are
kind, I have heard."
But the woolly Lamb only sighed. She felt certain that she would be
seasick, and no one can have a good time thinking of that.
"Well, if you go on an ocean trip we may never see you again," said the
Monkey on a Stick. "Ocean travel is very dangerous."
"Nonsense! It isn't anything of the sort!" cried the Calico Clown, and
he tried to wink at the Monkey from behind a pile of building blocks.
"The ocean is as safe as the shore. Why, look at the English and French
dolls," he said, waving his cymbals in the direction of the imported
toys in the next aisle. "They came over the ocean in a ship, and they
did not even have a headache. And look at the Japanese dolls--they came
much farther, over another ocean, too, and their hair was not even
mussed."
"That's so," said the Lamb, and she felt a little better at hearing
this.
"You want to keep still--don't scare her!" whispered the Clown to the
Monkey. "It's bad enough as it is--having her taken away by the sailor.
Don't make it worse!"
"All right, I won't," said the Monkey. And he began to talk about the
happier side of an ocean trip; how beautiful the sunset was, and how
there was never any dust at sea.
Then the sailor came back from having looked at the velocipedes, and the
girl clerk brought a large sheet of paper. In this the Lamb was wrapped.
She had a last look at her friends of the toy shelves and counters, and
then she felt herself being lifted up by the sailor.
Out of the store the sailor carried the Lamb on Wheels. She wished she
had had time to say good-bye to her friends, but she had not, and she
must make the best of it.
"At any rate I am going to have adventures, even though they may be on a
ship, and even though I may be seasick," thought the Lamb. "And perhaps
I may not be so very ill."
On and on walked the sailor, down this street up another until, after a
while, he stopped in front of a house.
"This must be the place," he said to himself. "I wonder if Mirabell is
at home. I'll go in and see."
Up the steps he went and rang the bell. There was a hole in the paper
wrapped about the Lamb, and through this hole she could look out. She
saw that she was on the piazza of a fine, large house. There was another
house next door, and at the window stood a little girl with a doll in
her arms.
"Gracious goodness!" exclaimed the Lamb on Wheels to herself. "That
looks just like the Sawdust Doll who used to live in our store! I wonder
if it could be?"
However she had no further chance to look, for the door opened just
then, and the sailor went inside the house, carrying the Lamb with him.
"Where's Mirabell?" asked the sailor of the maid who opened the door.
"She is up in the playroom," was the answer. "She has been ill, but she
is better now."
"So I heard!" went on the jolly sailor. "I brought her something to look
at. That will help her to get well."
Up to the playroom he went, and no sooner had he opened the door than
Mirabell, which was the name of the little girl, ran toward him.
"Oh, Uncle Tim!" cried Mirabell, as soon as she saw the jolly sailor,
"how glad I am to see you!"
"And I'm glad to see you, Mirabell," he laughed. "Look, I have brought
you something!"
"Is it a monkey, Uncle Tim?" she asked.
"No, Mirabell, it isn't a monkey. It is a woolly Lamb on Wheels. I saw
it in a toy store and I brought it to you."
"For me--to keep, Uncle Tim?" asked Mirabell, as the sailor took the
wrapping paper off.
"Yes, for you to keep," was the sailor's answer. "Did you think I would
be buying a Lamb for myself, to take to sea with me? Ho! Ho! I should
say not!" he chuckled.
"Oh, how glad I am! And how I shall love this Lamb!" said the little
girl.
As for the Lamb on Wheels, she was glad and happy, too, when she heard,
as she did, what the sailor said.
"Oh, I'm to have a home on shore!" thought the Lamb. "I am not going to
be taken on an ocean voyage at all, and be made seasick. I am to have a
home on shore!"
And that is just what the toy Lamb had. The jolly sailor, who was
Mirabell's uncle, had bought the toy for the little girl.
"Do you like the Lamb?" asked Uncle Tim.
"Oh, do I? Well, I just guess I do!" cried Mirabell, and she hugged the
Lamb in her arms, and rolled her across the floor on her wheels.
"Do you know, Uncle Tim," went on Mirabell, "this is the very same Lamb
I saw in the store, and wanted so much?"
"No! Is she?" asked the sailor, in surprise.
"The very same one!" declared Mirabell. "I was in the store once with
Dorothy, the little girl who lives next door. She has a Sawdust Doll
that came from the same store. And we were there the other day, before I
was taken ill, and I saw a woolly lamb--this very same one, I'm sure--
and I wanted it so much! But Mother said I must wait, and I'm glad I
did, for now you gave it to me."
"Yes, I'm giving you the Lamb for yourself--to keep forever," said the
sailor. "I wouldn't dream of taking her on a sea voyage with me."
So you see the Lamb need not have been uneasy after all. But of course
she did not know that when the sailor bought her.
Mirabell stroked the soft wool of her new toy Lamb. She wheeled it
across the floor again, and the sailor watched her. Then, all of a
sudden, the door of the playroom was opened with such a bang that it
struck the Lamb and sent her spinning across the floor, upside down,
into a corner.
"Oh, Arnold!" cried Mirabell to her brother, who had come in so roughly.
"Look what you did! You've broken my Lamb on Wheels!"
CHAPTER IV
SLIDING DOWNHILL
Arnold, who was a boy about as old as Dick, the brother of Dorothy,
stopped short after slamming open the playroom door. He looked at his
sister, then at the Lamb lying upside down in a corner, and then he
looked at the jolly sailor.
"What did I do?" asked Arnold, who was taken by surprise by the way his
sister called to him.
"You broke my new toy, the Lamb on Wheels," answered the little girl.
"Oh, I hope she isn't killed!" and running to the corner, she picked up
her new toy.