Harry had a pony named Cherokee; he had also pretty birds, that he delighted to watch, as they hung in their cage.
But the pet which Harry loved more than all others was a lamb, which he had named Hatty. This little creature had been given him but a short time before Minnie’s visit; but it had learned to know his voice, to run to meet him, and to eat grass from his hand.
When Hatty was first carried from her mother to Harry’s home, she cried for her usual companions. The boy’s tender heart was touched, and he begged his father to let the lamb sleep in his room.
“She will be so lonely!” he urged; “and I shall want to take care of her. Please, papa, be so kind as to let me have her there.”
His parents, ever anxious to please their dear child, readily consented; but first his mamma allowed him to take his pet into the lake for a bath.
Nurse, laughing at his delight, dressed Harry in his red flannel bathing suit; and then, with his lamb in his arms, he waded into the water.
Hatty was a little afraid; but even in those few hours that she had been with her young master, she had learned that he would not allow her to be injured.
When the lamb’s soft wool was dry, as it soon was in the hot sun, his father left his reading in the parlor to help him find a basket large enough for the lamb’s bed.
In the morning, when his mother went into his chamber, she laughed to see that he had taken his pet to share his own bed, and was lying with his arms around her neck, kissing her with demonstrative affection.
“Pretty little Hatty!” he exclaimed, again and again; “I do love you so dearly!”