"When my lamb is big enough" said Mary to little Aunt Hannah, "my
father will shear him with the [clippers], like the old [sheep] and
Mother will teach me to spin, and knit the wool; and so my little lamb
will give me my [gloves] and [socks]." "Let's shear him now." said
[aunt Hannah]. "I can teach you to knit." "Well." said Mary. "He is
very little--but we will only take a little of his [wool]." So she got
the [scissors], and they cut some wool from his [back]. But they
found it must first be spun into [yarn]--and they didn't know how: so
they went to ask Mary's [mother]. She laughed at the poor little
[lamb] with the big bare spots in his pretty white [fleece]. "If you
are in such a hurry for [gloves] and [socks]," she said, "we will
begin them at once. First, you must learn to spin." So she brought
out the big [spinning wheel] and some tiny soft [threads] of wool and
showed her how to spin the rolls into [yarn]. Mary liked to walk
backward and forward, and twirl the great [spinning wheel] with a
[clothes-pin]; but her yarn was all uneven, and kept snarling and
breaking. Soon she grew tired--and cross, too, and then the [yarn]
snarled worse than ever. As last [Mary] gave the [spinning wheel] a
great whirl, as hard as she could, and ran off to the [barn]. There
she hid in the [straw] and cried, until the little [lamb] found her
and rubbed his [head] against her [hair]. Then she stopped crying to
laugh, his ragged [fleece] looked so funny! Pretty soon she went back
to the [house] and said she was sorry for being cross. Then [Mother]
gave her a nice [ball] of yarn and some [knitting needles] and [Aunt
Hannah] taught her to knit a [sock].
[Illustration: HOW HE WENT BOATING.]
[Illustration: MARY'S LITTLE LAMB.]