The Story of a Lamb on Wheels | Page 8

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