Chapter VI

"When my lamb is big enough" said Mary to little Aunt Hannah, "my father will shear him with the [clippers], like the old [sheep] and Mother will teach me to spin, and knit the wool; and so my little lamb will give me my [gloves] and [socks]." "Let's shear him now." said [aunt Hannah]. "I can teach you to knit." "Well." said Mary. "He is very little--but we will only take a little of his [wool]." So she got the [scissors], and they cut some wool from his [back]. But they found it must first be spun into [yarn]--and they didn't know how: so they went to ask Mary's [mother]. She laughed at the poor little [lamb] with the big bare spots in his pretty white [fleece]. "If you are in such a hurry for [gloves] and [socks]," she said, "we will begin them at once. First, you must learn to spin." So she brought out the big [spinning wheel] and some tiny soft [threads] of wool and showed her how to spin the rolls into [yarn]. Mary liked to walk backward and forward, and twirl the great [spinning wheel] with a [clothes-pin]; but her yarn was all uneven, and kept snarling and breaking. Soon she grew tired--and cross, too, and then the [yarn] snarled worse than ever. As last [Mary] gave the [spinning wheel] a great whirl, as hard as she could, and ran off to the [barn]. There she hid in the [straw] and cried, until the little [lamb] found her and rubbed his [head] against her [hair]. Then she stopped crying to laugh, his ragged [fleece] looked so funny! Pretty soon she went back to the [house] and said she was sorry for being cross. Then [Mother] gave her a nice [ball] of yarn and some [knitting needles] and [Aunt Hannah] taught her to knit a [sock].