Mary’s Lamb

This is one of the most compelling stories I have ever read. It is the kind that you find on rare occasion. Is it a human trait to root for the underdog, after all on rare occasions they win?

It appeared that John boy Ralston loved the Sawyer girl. Perhaps it was just that he felt sorry for her, but he made a special point to be by her side. Mary was quite shy, she only spoke when called upon, and she always sat alone at recess. John was the son of the local minister, and perhaps he felt compelled to befriend her, but the fact remains that they were close friends. 

Mary was a grade behind John in school even though they were the same age. John had skipped a grade because his uncle was tutoring him. Everyone knew that John was going to Harvard when he was 17. Mary was getting quite fond of the tall handsome lad, but she shared it with no one, except her animals.

The chickens, the cows, the horses the sheep, all the animals that she took care of, they all had names, and they all were her pets. It was not unusual for one of her pets to follow her to school, and to wait outside until she was the first to come out. 

Everyone chided her for her closeness to her pets, but John boy supported her in the venture and always stood up for her. One day her teacher reprimanded her severely for being so close to her pets, and she began to cry. After school John boy walked her home and consoled her. John boy felt so bad that the next day he gave Mary a poem that he had written, which she kept for the rest of her life. 

John Ralston did go to Harvard at age 17, but he died in his freshman year. No one will ever know his relationship with Mary. Now Mary’s life retreated into a relationship with her pets. But because of him, she later became a household name, and produced a work that you are no doubt familiar with.

It wasn’t until years later that Mary was invited to speak to a church group of ladies that she told the story of a shy little girl that had been befriended by a preacher’s son. She produced the note and it would be the first time that human ears heard it’s contents:

“Mary had a Little Lamb 

“Its fleece was white as snow 

“And everywhere that Mary went 

“The lamb was sure to go.”

There was a magazine editor present that day and she printed it in “The Lady’s Home Journal.” The poem became popular and was made into a book by a famous industrialist. You memorized the poem, and anyone my age could recite it by heart.

Commemorating the day that a lamb followed its owner Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, to school and was reprimanded by the teacher Polly Campbell, and was probably the only poem that the author John Ralston had ever written.

“It followed her to school one day 

“Which was against the rule 

“It made the children laugh and play 

“To see a lamb at school.”

Hold the presses! I found another verse: 

“And so the teacher sent it out 

“But still it lingered near 

“It stood and waited round about 

“Till Mary did appear 

“Why does the lamb love Mary so?

“The little children cry.”

—James Neuhouser