Chapter XI

Once little Mary and her lamb really did get lost--and something dreadful almost happened! They had been picking [berries] in the [bushes] up Clover [hill], and couldn't find the way out. The [sun] was setting, and [Mary] thought of [snakes] and [bears]! She was tired and hungry, too. She was eating [blueberries] from her [pail], and crying, and the [lamb], who would not eat [berries] and wanted his milk in the old [coffeepot] was crying, too--"Ba-a-a!"--when a big, tall [boy] with a [rifle] in his [hand] broke through the bushes behind them. He sat down on a [stump] and stared at them, looking so white and scared that [Mary] felt sorry for him. "Did a [bear] chase you?" she asked. "Oh no," said he, "It's only I'm so glad you are alive!" He didn't dare tell her he had mistaken her little brown [head] bobbing among the [leaves], for a [bird], and raised his [gun] to shoot it when he saw a little white [lamb] bobbing beside it and stopped to look closer! So her little [lamb] had saved Mary's life--but she never knew it. "Now how came you up here?" the boy asked. "Are you lost?" "Oh no," said [Mary], winking away the [tears], and smiling; "We aren't exactly lost--only we can't just find our [home]. And we want our supper, too." "You shall have it!" said the [boy]. "You are little Mary--I know your [house]--and I'm going to carry you there, quicker than a [horse] can trot!" So he took [Mary] in one [arm] and the [lamb] in the other, and the [gun] he left hidden in the [forest] under a [tree]. Then he quickly found the [road] (it was close by, after all,) and in ten minutes they were safe home again; and Mary's [mother] thanked the big [boy] and gave them all some supper.