d
the heroine Mary may be still living. Less than eighty years ago she was
a little girl, the daughter of a farmer in Worcester County,
Massachusetts, U.S. One spring her father brought a feeble lamb into the
house, and Mary adopted it as her especial pet. It became so fond of her
that it would follow her everywhere. One day it followed her to the
village school, and, not knowing well what to do with it there, the girl
put it under her desk and covered it over with her shawl. There it
stayed until Mary was called up with her class to the teacher's desk to
say her lesson; but then the lamb went quietly after her, and the whole
school burst out laughing. Soon after, John Rollstone, a fellow-student
with Mary, wrote a little rhyme commemorating the incident, and the
verses went rapidly from lip to lip, giving the greatest delight to all.
The lamb grew up to be a sheep, and lived many years; and when it died
Mary grieved so much that her mother took some of its wool, which was
"white as snow," and knitted for her a pair of stockings to wear in
remembrance of her pet. Some years after, Mrs. Sarah Hall composed
additional verses to those of John Rollstone, making the complete rhyme
as we know it.[A] Mary took such good care of the stockings made from
her lamb's fleece that when she was a grown-up woman she was able to
give one of them to a church bazaar in Boston. As soon as it became
known that the stocking was from the fleece of "Mary's little lamb,"
every one wanted a piece of it. So the stocking was unravelled, and the
yarn cut into short pieces. Each piece was fastened to a card on which
Mary wrote her full name, and those cards sold so well that they brought
the handsome sum of L28 to the Old South Church in Boston.

[Footnote A: The following are the added lines referred to:--

And so the teacher turned him out,
But still he lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.

And then he ran to her, and laid
His head upon her arm.
As if he said, "I'm not afraid,
You'll shield me from all harm."

"What makes the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,"
The teacher did reply.
]

Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;
Not all the King's horses, nor all the King's men,
Could set Humpty-Dumpty up again.

Attempts have been made to show how that was suggested by the fall of a
bold bad baron wh