Dollabella, Mary's biggest doll, had had the measles, but she was getting better. "When people get better" said Mary, "they always go to ride." So she tried to give her doll a ride on the lamb's back, but he danced up and down and she fell off. Then Mary took a string and tied her on, so when the lamb danced again he couldn't shake Dollabella off. He didn't like that, so he thought he would run away from her, and off he went! The gate was shut, but he squeezed through a gap in the fence, and tore Dollabella's dress on a nail. Mary squeezed through the gap, too, and her skirt caught on the nail, and tore a great big three-cornered hole. The lamb ran across a field and jumped over a stone wall into the bushes and Mary ran after him, laughing. Dollabella's hat fell off her head, and so did Mary's bonnet. The branches of the trees caught her hair and tangled them and almost pulled the doll from the lamb's back. At last they came out into a wheatfield and saw Farmer Clover at work with his hoe. "Hello!" said he. "Who's running away—you or your lamb?" "Oh, we aren't running away," said Mary, all out of breath. "We are just giving my doll a ride. She is sick!" "Well, that's a pretty fast ride for anybody that's sick!" said Farmer Clover. "Now I am going to the barn, to get a jug of molasses. Don't you want to ride home in my buggy?" Mary and the lamb were tired, and glad to have a ride—and I think the poor sick doll must have been just as glad. But when they got home Mary had to take a sewing needle and thimble out of her basket and mend her dress and Dollabella's too.
How Bossy bunted him.
