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“Oh, we can have some fun with it!” said the little boy. “Let’s call it.”

So they whistled and called to the white object they thought was a dog, but the Lamb did not move. Of course she couldn’t, while the boys were looking at her.

“That’s funny!” said the big boy. “What do you think is the matter with that dog? It doesn’t come to us.”

“Let’s go up and see,” said the smaller lad.

Together they tramped through the weeds until they were close to the toy. Then the big boy cried out:

“Why, it isn’t a dog at all! It’s a Lamb on Wheels!”

“So it is!” said the little boy. “But I know how we can have some fun with it, just the same!”

“How?” asked the big boy.

“We can play Noah’s Ark over in the brook,” explained the small boy. “There are some boards over there. I was making a raft of them the other day. We can make another raft now, and we can get on and sail down the brook. And we can take the Lamb on board with us and make believe we’re in a Noah’s Ark and that there’s a flood and all like that! Won’t that be fun?”

“Yes, I guess it will,” said the big boy. “Come on! I’ll carry the Lamb.”

So, picking up the toy and tucking it under his arm, he led the way to the brook, which ran through the vacant lots. It was a nice brook, not too deep, and wide enough to sail boats on.

“Now we’ll make the raft,” said the smaller boy, as they came to a place on the bank of the brook where there were some boards and planks.

The big boy set the Lamb down near the water and then the two lads began to make a raft. A raft is like the big, wide, flat boat, without any house or cabin on it. It did not take long to make it.

“All aboard!” cried the big boy, when the raft had been finished. “All aboard! Come on!” He picked up the Lamb again, and walked out on the raft. The smaller boy went with his chum. With long poles, cut from a near-by tree, the boys shoved the raft out into the middle of the brook.

“Now we’re a Noah’s Ark!” laughed the small boy, “and we have one animal with us–a woolly Lamb on Wheels!”

And down the brook Mirabell’s toy went sailing with the two boys on the raft.

“This is certainly surprising!” thought the Lamb. “I was bought by a sailor, and here I am making a voyage! I hope I shall not be seasick!”

CHAPTER IX

ON A LOAD OF WOOD

Now while the Lamb on Wheels was being carried away by the dog, and after she had been dropped in the lot, where she was picked up by the boys and put on a Noah’s Ark raft–while all this was happening to the toy, Mirabell, the little girl who owned the Lamb, was almost heart- broken. After she had admired the trunk Dorothy had had given to her for the Sawdust Doll, Mirabell ran back to get her pet toy.

“Oh, where is my Lamb on Wheels?” cried Mirabell, looking up and down the street. “Where is she?”

“Where did you leave her?” asked Dorothy, who had gone back with her friend.

“I left the Lamb right here by the fence,” answered Mirabell. “She had a string on. I was pulling her along the sidewalk, and when you called me I let go the string and ran. Oh, where is my nice Lamb?”

“Maybe Dick took the Lamb,” suggested Dorothy to Mirabell, when they had looked up and down the street, in front of and behind the fence, and even in the yard, and had not found the toy. “Dick sometimes takes my things and hides them just for fun,” Dorothy said.

“Or Arnold, maybe,” added Mirabell.

Just then Dick and Arnold came out of Mirabell’s house, each with a slice of bread and jam, and there was some jam around their mouths, too, showing that they had each taken a bite from their slices of bread.