The Story of a Lamb on Wheels Part 4

"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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k'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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 s.h.i.+ny 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 d.i.c.k.

"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 b.u.mp 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. .h.i.t 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.