Books: The Story of a Lamb on Wheels
L >>
Laura Lee Hope >> The Story of a Lamb on Wheels
"Oh, I didn't mean to do that," said Arnold, who was sorry enough for
the accident. "I didn't know you were in here," he went on. "I came to
get my toy fire engine. I'm going to play with Dick and his express
wagon. Where'd you get your Lamb on Wheels, Mirabell?"
"Uncle Tim brought her to me," answered the little girl.
Mirabell carefully looked at her plaything. And she was very glad to
find out that no damage seemed to have been done. None of the four
wheels was broken, the little wooden platform on which the Lamb stood
was not splintered, and there was not so much as a bruise on the little
black nose of the Lamb herself.
"I guess she is so soft and woolly that she didn't get hurt much,"
Mirabell said, turning the Lamb over and over. "She's so fat and soft--
like a rubber ball," she added.
"I'm glad of that," said Arnold. "Next time I come into a room I'll look
near the door to see that there isn't a Lamb behind it"
"That's the boy!" exclaimed Uncle Tim. "And here is something I brought
for you, Arnold. I didn't buy it in a toy store. It's a little wooden
puzzle I whittled with my knife out of a bit of wood when I was on the
ship."
Arnold looked at what Uncle Tim gave him. It was a puzzle, made of some
wooden rings on a stick, and the trick was to get the rings off the
stick. Arnold tried and tried but could not do it until his uncle showed
him how the trick was done. Then it was easy.
"Oh, thank you!" cried the boy, when he had learned how to do the trick
himself. "I'm going over and show Dick this puzzle. I don't believe he
can do it. Want to come, Mirabell, and show Dorothy your Lamb on
Wheels?"
"No, thank you, not now," Arnold's sister answered. "I'm going to get a
comb and brush and make my Lamb's wool all nice and fluffy. She got all
mussed when you banged her into the corner."
"I'm sorry," said Arnold again. "Do you want me to brush her off for
you?"
"I guess not!" laughed Mirabell. "Once you tried to get the tangles and
snarls out of the hair of one of my dolls, and you 'most pulled her head
off."
"All right. Then I'll take this puzzle and show it to Dick and Dorothy,"
decided Arnold.
"Who are Dick and Dorothy?" asked Uncle Tim.
"The little boy and girl who live next door," Mirabell explained.
"Dorothy has a Sawdust Doll, and Dick has a White Rocking Horse. They
came from the same store where you got my Lamb on Wheels!"
"Is that so?" cried the jolly sailor. "Well, you'll have to take your
Lamb over next door and let her meet her toy friends again."
"I'm going to," Dorothy said. "Oh, Uncle Tim, don't you believe Dolls,
and Lambs, and things like that, really know one another when they
meet?"
"I shouldn't be a bit surprised if they did," answered the sailor. "You
take your Lamb over and see if she remembers the Sawdust Doll and the
White Rocking Horse."
"I will!" promised Mirabell.
And when the Lamb heard this, though just then she dared not move by
herself or speak, she felt very happy. For, as I have told you, though
she dared not move when human eyes were looking at her, there was
nothing to stop her from hearing what was said. The Lamb had ears, and
what good would they be if she could not hear through them, I'd like to
know?
"Oh, I am so glad I am going to see the Sawdust Doll and the Rocking
Horse again," thought the Lamb. "I hope I get a chance to talk to them
when no one is looking. I want to tell them about their friends that are
still in the toy store."
While Arnold hurried next door with his toy fire engine, that pumped
real water, to play with Dick and to show his puzzle, Uncle Tim went
downstairs to talk to Mirabell's mother. Then Mirabell got her best
doll's comb and brush, which were just the right size, and not a bit too
small or too large, and with this comb and brush she smoothed the kinks
and snarls out of the Lamb's wool.
For when Arnold had opened the door so suddenly, banging the Lamb into a
corner, though he did not mean to do it, he had tangled the woolly coat
of the toy.
"But I'll soon smooth it out," thought Mirabell, as she used comb and
brush. "And I won't hurt you, either, my nice Lamb!"
And Mirabell was so careful that the Lamb never once cried Baa-a! as
almost any other lamb would do if you pulled her wool.
The little girl had made her Lamb nice and tidy, and she was going
downstairs, Mirabell was, to see what Uncle Tim was doing, when Arnold
came back from Dick's house with the toy fire engine and the wooden
puzzle the sailor had made for him.
"Oh, Mirabell, I know how we can have a lot of fun!" cried Arnold.
"How?" asked the little girl.
"With your new Lamb," went on her brother. "Come on, I'll show you. We
must go down to the kitchen. It's a new trick. Dick told me about it. He
did it with an old roller skate."
"What trick is it?" asked Mirabell. "I hope it won't hurt my Lamb."
"No, it'll be a lot of fun," said Arnold. "I told Dick and Dorothy about
your Lamb, and they want to see her. I guess the Sawdust Doll and the
Rocking Horse want to see her, too."
"I'll go over to-morrow," promised Mirabell. "Now show me the funny
trick, Arnold."
The two children went down to the kitchen. There was no one in it just
then, as the cook was out, and Mother was in the parlor talking to Uncle
Tim, the sailor.
"First we've got to get the long ironing board," said Arnold.
"What are we going to do with that?" Mirabell asked.
"Make a sliding downhill thing for your Lamb," answered her brother.
"Why, how can you do that?" asked Mirabell. "There isn't any snow now,
though there was some for Christmas. How can you make a sliding downhill
thing without snow?"
"Ill show you," Arnold said. "Wait till I get the ironing board."
It was kept in the cellar-way, hanging on a nail, and Arnold went there
to get it. But the board was so long and heavy that his sister had to
help him lift it down off the nail.
"We'll put one end up on a chair, and the other end down on the floor,"
said Arnold. "That will make a sliding downhill place."
"Yes," replied Mirabell, as she saw her brother do this. "But it isn't
slippery enough for anybody to slide down. You must have snow for a
hill."
"Not this kind," Arnold answered, with a laugh. "You see your Lamb has
wheels on her, and she can roll right down the ironing board hill, just
like Dick made an old roller skate roll down. Look, Mirabell!"
Arnold took the Lamb from his sister's arms and set the toy on the high
end of the slanting ironing-board hill. And when the Lamb looked down,
and saw how steep it was, and how long, she said to herself:
"Oh, I'm afraid something dreadful will happen to me! I never coasted
downhill before, though I have heard some of the sleds and toboggans in
the toy department speak of it. Oh, he's letting go of me!" she cried to
herself, as she felt Arnold taking off his hands by which he had been
holding her at the top of the ironing-board hill. "He's going to let me
go!"
And let go of the Lamb Arnold did.
"Watch her coast, Mirabell!" he called to his sister.
Slowly at first, the Lamb on Wheels began to roll down the long, smooth,
sloping board. Then she began to go faster and faster. At the bottom she
could see the shiny oilcloth on the kitchen floor. Beyond the end of the
ironing board the kitchen floor stretched out a long way.
"Oh, I feel so queer!" bleated the Lamb as, faster and faster, she slid
down the ironing-board hill. "Oh, what a strange adventure!"
CHAPTER V
IN GREAT DANGER
"Look, Mirabell!" cried Arnold, pointing to the Lamb as she went down
the ironing board. "Didn't I tell you she could coast without any snow?"
"Yes, you did, and she really is doing it!" laughed the little girl,
clapping her hands. "Oh, isn't it nice? I never thought a Lamb could
coast downhill!"
"I never did, either," said the woolly Lamb to herself. "This is the
first time I was ever made to do a thing like this, and I hope it will
be the last! Oh, how fast I am going!"
"It's the wheels on her that make her coast so nice," explained Arnold,
when the Lamb was half way down the ironing-board hill. "If she didn't
have them she wouldn't roll down at all. A Sawdust Doll can't do it, nor
a Rocking Horse. It's got to be something with wheels."
When the Lamb heard this, as, of course, she did hear, having ears, she
thought to herself:
"Well, maybe this will not be so bad, after all. I can do things, it
seems, that the Sawdust Doll and Rocking Horse cannot do. Not that I am
going to be proud, or stuck up," went on the Lamb to herself.
"Oh, look at her go!" cried Dick.
"Yes, but I hope she won't be hurt," said the little girl. "I wouldn't
want my Lamb on Wheels that Uncle Tim just gave me to be hurt."
"I should say not!" thought the Lamb to herself. "Sliding down ironing-
board hills may be something not many other toys can do, but I don't
want anything to happen."
Faster and faster she went, and finally she reached the end of the board
and came to the smooth oilcloth on the floor. Then the wheels carried
her across that to the far side of the room, and the Lamb brought up
with a little bump against the baseboard.
"Oh, I hope she isn't hurt!" cried Mirabell, as she ran to pick up her
toy.
And the Lamb was all right--there was not even a kink out of place in
her soft, woolly coat.
So Mirabell and Arnold had fun letting the Lamb on Wheels coast down the
ironing-board hill. Again and again they gave her a nice, long slide
across the smooth oilcloth on the kitchen floor.
"Now this is the last," said Mirabell, after a while. "I want to put her
to sleep."
Once more the Lamb was lifted to the high part of the ironing board and
allowed to coast down on her wheels. But, alas! this time, just as she
was rolling over the kitchen floor, one of the wheels hit against
Arnold's foot. Instead of going in a straight line the Lamb swung off to
one side. Straight toward the outside door she rolled, and just then
Susan, the cook, came in from out-of-doors.
Susan held the door open for a moment, and before either Mirabell or
Arnold could stop the Lamb, out she rolled to the back steps.
"Oh, my Lamb! My Lamb!" cried Mirabell. "She'll break her legs if she
falls down the steps!"
Down the back steps, bumpity-bump went the Lamb on Wheels. But she did
not break any of her four legs, I am glad to say.
Just how it happened I do not know, but when Mirabell and Arnold ran out
to pick up the Lamb on Wheels the children found that the toy was not in
the least hurt, except, maybe, the wool was ruffled up a little.
"Dear me, what a lot of adventures I am having!" thought the Lamb, as
Mirabell picked her up. "I wish I could tell the Calico Clown or the
Bold Tin Soldier something about them. They are quite remarkable, I
think!"
"Is she hurt?" asked Arnold, as he saw his sister holding her new toy.
"No, she seems to be all right," replied Mirabell. "But I'm not going to
slide her down the ironing-board hill any more to-day. She must go to
sleep."
So the board was hung away, and soon the Lamb was put in a little stable
Mirabell made for her out of a pasteboard box. The stable was set in a
corner of the playroom, near a little Wooden Lion that had once lived in
a Noah's Ark. He was the only one of the Ark animals left. Arnold or
Mirabell had lost all the others.
"Don't be afraid of me! I won't bite you," said the Wooden Lion to the
Lamb on Wheels, when they were left alone in the playroom. The children
had gone downstairs to supper with Uncle Tim, and the sailor was telling
them many jolly stories of the sea.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of you," said the Lamb on Wheels to the Wooden Lion.
"I am much larger than you, even if you are like the jungle animals."
"It isn't my fault that I am small," said the Wooden Lion, a little
crossly, the Lamb thought. "I had to be made that way to fit in the Ark.
You ought to see the Elephant. He isn't much larger than myself!"
"Did he have on roller skates?" asked the Lamb.
"Roller skates!" exclaimed the Wooden Lion. "Why! who ever heard of such
a thing? A Noah's Ark Elephant on roller skates! The idea!"
"Oh, you needn't get so excited," said the Lamb, as she wiggled her
short tail the least bit. "In the toy store, where I came from, we had
an Elephant who put on roller skates and raced with a White Rocking
Horse."
"I wish I could have seen that," said the little Wooden Lion. "It must
have been funny."
"It was," said the Lamb on Wheels. "The Elephant wanted to race with me,
after the Horse was taken away. But I was sold, too, and brought here."
"I am glad to see you," said the Noah's Ark Lion. "I have been quite
lonesome. There used to be a number of us--there was a Tiger, a Camel, a
Monkey, a Hippopotamus, and, oh! ever so many others, besides the
Elephant. But we are all scattered. I am the only one left. Tell me,
were you ever in a Noah's Ark?"
"I never was," admitted the Lamb. "Is it nice?"
"Well, yes, only it's a bit crowded," answered the Wooden Lion. "But it
has to be that way, I suppose. I like it better in this playroom, as I
can move about more. But still I was lonesome until you came. Let us be
friends, and tell each other our adventures."
So the Lamb told of the fun she had had in the toy store with the Bold
Tin Soldier, the Calico Clown, and the others. She told of having been
taken away by the jolly sailor, and how afraid she was that she would be
seasick.
"But it was all right when I found he was bringing me to a home on shore
with Mirabell," said the Lamb. Then she told of her slide down the
ironing board.
"Now I will tell you some of the things that happened to me," said the
Wooden Lion. So he related his adventures--how once he and the other
animals had been jumbled together and piled into the Ark.
"And then, all of a sudden, that boy Arnold took the Ark and dropped it
in the bathtub full of water, with all us animals inside!" said the
Lion.
"Good gracious! why did he do that?" asked the Lamb, in surprise.
"Oh, he said he was pretending there was another flood, and he wanted to
see if any of us could swim," the Lion answered.
"Could you?" the Lamb wanted to know.
"Well, those of us who couldn't swim could float, so none of us was
drowned," the Lion answered. "Only being soaked in the water, as I was,
made some of the paint come off my tail. I really haven't been the same
Lion since," he added, with a sorrowful sigh.
"That is too bad," said the Lamb sympathetically.
"Of course Arnold was smaller than he is now, and he was not so kind to
his toys as he has since learned to be," resumed the Wooden Lion. "He
really meant no harm. But, as I say, I am the only one of the Noah's Ark
animals left, and really I am very glad to have you to talk to."
The two new friends spent some time together telling each other their
different adventures, and then, suddenly, the door of the playroom
opened and Mirabell came in.
"Hush! Not another word!" said the Wooden Lion in a whisper.
"Well, I guess my Lamb has slept long enough," said Mirabell, picking up
her new toy. "I'll have some fun with her before I go to bed."
She petted her Lamb, and took off the blue ribbon from the woolly
creature's neck.
"I must smooth it out and tie a better bow," said Mirabell. "It got all
mussed when you slid down the ironing board."
So Mirabell played with her Lamb until it was time for the little girl
to go to bed. Uncle Tim came up to see Mirabell and Arnold to say good-
bye, for he was going on a sea voyage.
"And bring me a parrot when you come back!" begged Arnold.
"Would you like a monkey, Mirabell?" asked the jolly sailor.
"No, thank you," she answered. "A monkey is nice, but he might pull the
wool off my Lamb."
"That's so--he might!" laughed the jolly sailor. "Well, good-bye,
Mirabell, Arnold, and the Lamb on Wheels."
Then Uncle Tim went away and the children went to bed, while the Lamb on
Wheels was put in the pasteboard box stable, near the Wooden Lion. And
in the night they played together and had a fine time.
The Lamb on Wheels, in the days that followed, began to feel quite at
home in Mirabell's house, and she liked her little girl mistress better
and better, for Mirabell was very kind.
"Some day, when it gets warmer, I'll take my Lamb over to Dorothy's
house and let her see the Sawdust Doll," said Mirabell to her brother.
"And I'll take my fire engine over and I'll ride on Dick's Rocking
Horse," said Arnold. "But it is so cold now the water in my engine might
freeze if I took it over to Dick's house."
"Yes, it is cold," agreed Mirabell. "I guess I'll take my Lamb down to
the sitting room, where there's a fire on the hearth."
"I'll come too," said Arnold. "I'll bring my little fire engine."
Soon the two children were having a good time with their toys in front
of the fireplace in the sitting room. On the hearth blazed a snapping,
crackling warm fire of logs.
"Now you can get nice and warm," said Mirabell to her Lamb, as she set
her down close to the fireplace. "You stay here and get warm, and I'll
go and ask Susan for some cookies to eat."
Arnold also went to the kitchen with his sister, and when the two
children came back to the sitting room they saw a dreadful sight. A
spark had popped out from the hearth and set fire to a piece of paper on
the floor near the Lamb on Wheels.
"Oh, she'll burn! My Lamb on Wheels will burn!" cried Mirabell, as she
rushed forward.
CHAPTER VI
DOWN THE COAL HOLE
Mirabell and Arnold had been told to be very careful whenever they
played in the sitting room, if a fire were burning on the open hearth.
But, for the moment, the little girl forgot about this. All she thought
of was that her Lamb on Wheels might be burned by the blazing paper,
which had been set on fire by a spark popping out from the blazing logs
on the hearth.
"Oh, my Lamb! My poor Lamb!" cried Mirabell.
"Look out!" shouted Arnold. "Don't go too close!"
"Why not?" asked his sister. "I have to get my Lamb on Wheels away from
the fire!"
"No, you mustn't!" Arnold said. "Your dress might catch on fire!"
The piece of paper was burning on the wide brick hearth of the
fireplace, and not on the carpet, and the Lamb was close to the piece of
paper that was on fire. Altogether too close to the fire was the Lamb.
She was in great danger.
"But I've got to save her! I must save my pet Lamb!" cried Mirabell. She
was going to rush forward, but her brother caught hold of her and held
her back.
"Wait!" cried Arnold. "I can put out the fire and save your Lamb."
"How!"
"With my fire engine! It has real water in it, and I'll pump some on the
paper and save your Lamb from burning up. Watch me, Mirabell, but don't
go near the blaze!"
The piece of paper, close to the Lamb on Wheels, was now sending up a
bright blaze. It would have been pretty if it had not been so dangerous.
Arnold quickly wheeled his fire engine as close to the blazing paper as
he felt it was safe to go. The engine had a little pump on it, as I have
told you, and it spurted out real water, with which it was now filled.
"Toot! Toot! I'm a fireman, and I'm going to put out a real fire!" cried
Arnold.
He pressed back the little catch that held the pump from working. There
was a whirring sound as the wheels spun around, and then the little
rubber hose on the pump of the engine filled with water.
A moment later a small stream spurted out, and Arnold aimed it right for
the piece of blazing paper. The water fell in a small shower on the
fire, and then with a hiss and spluttering, and sending up a cloud of
smoke, the paper stopped burning.
"Toot! Toot! The fire is out!" cried the boy, making believe blow his
engine whistle. "Now your Lamb is saved, Mirabell."
"Oh, I'm so glad! Thank you, Arnold!" exclaimed his sister.
She ran forward and picked up her Lamb on Wheels. And, I am glad to say,
the wool was not even scorched, not the least, tiny bit.
"Oh, she's all right! She's all right! My Lamb isn't hurt a bit,
Arnold," cried Mirabell.
"I told you I'd save her," said the boy. "But you mustn't ever run near
a fire yourself, Mirabell. Wait for me to put it out with my engine.
That's what fire engines and fire departments are for."
"Dear me! that came near being a terrible adventure for me," thought the
Lamb on Wheels, as Mirabell carried her back from the fireplace. "In
another minute I would have been all ablaze from that paper, and wool
does burn so fast!"
When the Lamb had been saved, the mother of the two children came into
the sitting room.
"What is burning?" she cried. "Have you been playing with fire?"
"No, Mother," answered Arnold, and he told what had happened.
As the days passed Mirabell came to love her Lamb on Wheels more and
more. Sometimes the little girl would tie a string to the wooden
platform, on which her toy stood, and pull the Lamb around the house, as
Arnold used to pull his little express wagon.
"I like to ride that way," thought the Lamb. "It is much more fun than
it would be to be crowded into a Noah's Ark like the Wooden Lion and
thrown into the flooded bathtub."
The Lamb was wishing Mirabell would take her next door, to see the
Sawdust Doll, but, as it happened, Dorothy was ill, and it was not
thought best for Mirabell to go in for a few days. However, Mirabell
could look from her windows over to those in the house where Dick and
Dorothy lived. And though Dorothy was too ill to be out of bed, Dick was
not.
Dick would stand at the window in his house, and Mirabell and Arnold
would stand at the window in their front room, and look across. The
children waved to one another, and Dick would hold up the head of his
Rocking Horse for Mirabell and Arnold to see.
Once Mirabell held up her Lamb on Wheels at the same time that Dick had
his Rocking Horse close to the window, and the two toys saw each other
for the first time since they had been separated.
"Oh, there is my old friend, the White Rocking Horse!" thought the Lamb
on Wheels. "How I wish I could talk to him."
The Horse wished the same thing, and he even thought perhaps he might
get a chance to run over some evening after dark and talk to the Lamb.
But the doors of both houses were locked each night, and though the
Horse and Lamb could roam about and seem to come to life when no one was
watching them, they could not unlock doors. So they had to be content to
look at each other through the windows.
"I wish I could see the Sawdust Doll," thought the Lamb, when she had
looked over at the Horse one day. "I'd like to speak to her."
There came a few days of bright sunshine, when the weather was not so
cold. One afternoon Arnold said to Mirabell:
"I'm going to take my little express wagon out on the sidewalk in front
of the house. Why don't you bring out your Lamb?"
"I will, if Mother will let me," said Mirabell.
And Mother did. Soon the two children were running up and down in front
of the house, Mirabell pulling her Lamb along by a string, and Arnold
pretending to be an expressman with his wagon.
"Oh, there comes a man to put some coal in Dorothy's house!" called
Arnold, as a big wagon, drawn by two strong horses, stopped in front of
the place where the Sawdust Doll and the White Rocking Horse lived.
"Let's go down and watch!" he said.
"All right," agreed Mirabell. So she pulled her Lamb on Wheels down the
sidewalk, and Arnold hauled his express wagon along.
At Dorothy's house the coal bin was partly under the pavement, and to
put in coal a round, iron cover was lifted up from a hole in the
sidewalk, and the coal was dumped through this hole. As the children
watched, and as Dorothy, who was now better, stood at the window with
her brother Dick, also looking on, the coal man took the cover off the
hole in the sidewalk, so he could dump the black lumps through the
opening into the bin.
"I wouldn't want to fall down there!" said Mirabell to her brother.
"I should say not!" exclaimed Arnold. "You'd get all black!"
The coal man, after opening the large, round hole in the sidewalk,
climbed back on his wagon to shovel off his load. And just then Carlo,
the dog belonging to Dorothy, ran barking out of the side entrance of
the house where he lived. Carlo always became excited when coal was
being put in the sidewalk hole.
"Bow-wow! Wow!" barked Carlo.
"Look out you don't fall down the hole!" cried Mirabell.
Just then Carlo gave a jump around behind the little girl, and, somehow
or other, he became entangled in the string that was tied on the Lamb.
"Look out, Carlo! Look out!" cried Mirabell. "Be careful or you'll break
my Lamb's string!"
But Carlo was not careful. He did not mean to make trouble, but he did.
He barked and growled and jumped around until his legs were all tangled
up in the cord.
"Oh, look!" suddenly cried Arnold. "Look at your Lamb!"
And, as he spoke, Carlo gave a big jump to get the tangling string off
his legs. The string broke, but, as it did so, the Lamb started to roll
toward the open coal hole. And, at the same moment, the driver of the
wagon began shoveling some of the black lumps down the opening.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Mirabell.