The Story of a Lamb on Wheels | Page 9

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