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LESSON 13
A THOUSAND flocks were on the hills,
A thousand flocks and more,
Feeding in sunshine pleasantly:
They were the rich man’s store.
There was the while
one little lamb
Beside a cottage door;
A little lamb that rested
With the children ’neath the tree;
That ate, meek creature, from their hands,
And nestled
to their knee;
That had a place within their hearts—
One of the family.
But want, even as an armed man,
Came down upon their shed:
The father laboured all day long
That his children might be fed;
And, one by one, their household things
Were sold to buy them bread.
That father, with a downcast eye,
Upon his threshold
stood;
Gaunt
poverty each pleasant thought
Had in his heart subdued.
“What is the creature’s life to us?”
Said he; “ ’twill buy us food.
“Ay, though the children weep all day,
And with down-drooping head
Each does his small task mournfully,
The hungry must be fed;
And that which has a price to bring
Must go to buy us bread.”
It went. Oh, parting has a pang
The hardest heart to wring;
But the tender
soul of a little child
With fervent love doth cling,
With love that hath no feignings
false,
Unto each gentle thing.
Therefore most sorrowful it was
Those children small to see;
Most sorrowful to hear them plead
or the lamb so piteously:
“O mother dear, it loveth us!
And what besides have we?”
“Let’s take him to the broad green hill.”
n his impotent despair,
Said one strong boy— “let’s take him off,
The hills are wide and fair;
I know a little hiding-place,
And we shall keep him there.”
Oh, vain! —They took the little lamb,
And straightway tied him down;
With a strong cord they tied him fast,
And o’er the common brown,
And o’er the hot and flinty roads,
They took him to the town.
The little children through that day,
And throughout all the morrow,
From everything about the house
A mournful thought did borrow;
The very bread they had to eat
Was food unto their sorrow.
—MARY HOWITT
Why had the pet lamb to be sold? Who were very vexed? Why? What did they think of doing? Did they succeed? Why did the bread they got to eat make them sadder?
pleas´-ant-ly mourn´-ful-ly la´-boured thou´-sand pov´-er-ty
fam´-i-ly hun´-gry crea´-ture be-side´ bor´-row
chil´-dren straight´-way sor´-row-ful cot´-tage flint´-y
down´-cast sun´-shine through-out´ rest´-ed gen´-tle
