Chapter X

One day Mary and her lamb were playing in the [barn]. He would lie still as a [mouse] while she buried him in the [hay], but when she clapped her [hands] he jumped up and ran to her like a [dog]. Then [Mary] began to pull out [hay] from the mow, and made a deep hole where they could both creep in out of sight. After supper they played hide-and-seek with [Hannah]. So many nice hiding-places--under the [flower]-bushes, behind the rain-[barrel], and around the [wood] by the [woodshed]. At last [Mary] remembered her hole in the [hay] and crept in, with the [lamb] which followed her everywhere. Then they waited, keeping very still, till by and by [Mary] grew sleepy--for it was almost [bed]-time. She laid her [head] on the [lamb]'s soft neck, as they cuddled down together in their [nest], and before they knew it they were fast asleep! [Hannah] hunted and hunted, till she thought [Mary] must have gone in the [house], to play a trick on her; so she went into her own [house] a little vexed. [Bed]-time came and her [Mother] came to the [door] to call Mary in. "I guess she's gone home with Hannah," said [father], as he came from the [barn] with his [lamp]. The [girls] often slept together, and Mary's mother didn't hear the "I guess," so she only said "It is naughty to go without telling me. She mustn't again." So nobody knew where [Mary] was, all night! But next morning she didn't come home--she was not at [Hannah]'s--and how frightened everybody was! They hunted everywhere, and at last started to drive to the neighbor's [houses]. The noise of the [carriage] and of the [horse] trampling on the [street] waked Mary--and how astonished everybody was, when she and the [lamb] came creeping out of the [hay]!