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The horse walked toward the water, for he was thirsty. And while he was drinking the man laid aside the Lamb, placing her on some soft grass.

Then he piled the boards and planks on his wagon, and next he took up the Lamb again, putting her on top of the load of wood.

“I’ll give the Lamb a ride!” said the man.

CHAPTER X

MIRABELL IS HAPPY

Away rattled the wagon with the load of wood. The man sat on the seat, driving the horse, and behind him, where he had placed her on a board so she would not roll off, was the Lamb on Wheels.

“Are my adventures never going to end?” thought the Lamb. “Here I am riding on a wagon, while, a short time ago, I was on a raft, sailing over the ocean like Uncle Tim.”

The Lamb did not know the difference between the brook and the ocean, but we can hardly blame her, as she had not traveled very much.

“I rather like this wagon ride, though,” said the Lamb, as the man drove away from the brook and up through the lots. His horse was no longer thirsty.

The man who had picked up the pieces of the boys’ raft to take home to be chopped up for firewood, did all sorts of odd jobs in the neighborhood. He would cut grass, beat rugs, cart away rubbish, and do things like that for people who lived near the brook. And soon after loading his wagon with wood and taking away the Lamb on Wheels the man said to himself:

“I’ll go around to the Big House and ask if they have any trash that needs carting away. I can’t take it now, because I have this load of wood on, but I could come to-morrow and get it. Yes, I’ll drive to the Big House and see if they need me.”

The “Big House,” as the man called it, was a place where a gardener, a cook, and a maid were kept by a rich family, and the gardener used to rake up the trash in the yard and keep it until the rubbish man called with his wagon to take it away.

So along rattled the wagon with the Lamb on Wheels up on the pile of wood. She slid from side to side, as the road was now rough, and once she almost fell out. But the man looked around just in time and saw her.

“Oh, ho! Mustn’t have that happen!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want to lose the Lamb I found. It’s an almost new toy, and maybe I can sell it. I must not lose it!”

Then he reached back and took the Lamb on Wheels from along the loose pieces of wood.

“I’ll set it up on the seat beside me,” said the man, talking aloud to himself, as he often did. “I can hold it on as we go over the rough places.”

But soon the man drove out of the lots to a smooth road, and then the Lamb felt better.

“Now we’ll stop at the Big House,” said the man, as he drove up along a back road and stopped at a gate in a high fence. “Whoa!” he called to his horse, and when the horse stopped the man got down off the seat, leaving the Lamb still there.

The man who had the load of wood opened the gate in the fence, and just then another man came out.

“Hello, Patrick!” called the wood man. “I was driving past and I just thought I’d stop and see if there was any trash you wanted carted off to the dump. Of course I can’t take it now, as I have on a load of wood,” he added. “But I can come back later.”

“Oh, so you have a load of wood, have you?” asked Patrick, who had a garden rake in his hand. “Where did you get it?” and he walked toward the wagon, letting the garden gate swing shut behind him.