They Would Not Love My Lamb
Glenn W. Worthington
Copyright 2012 by Glenn W. Worthington
Two young boys and a lamb were in an open field. But the three were not playing together. One boy had a rope around the lamb's neck and was forcing it to follow him. The other boy was behind the lamb, switching it with a stick.
In the sky above them storm clouds were moving in to block the sun. Darkness was coming. All around them the countryside hushed. Fall had arrived. Cold engulfed the land and with that cold came death to many living things. The leaves one the trees turned beautiful colors and dropped to the ground.
The boys continued their hurried pace, and the lamb was dragged along with them. The farmhouse they were anxious to get to was in sight, but still quite a long way off. So the boy in the lead started running. The lamb tried desperately to keep up, but its legs were too short. As it got behind, the rope naturally tightened the grip it had on the lamb's neck. And the boy in back swatted the lamb more and more with the stick.
They did not slow any as they went down one side of a ravine, crossed a small creek, and then started up the other side. Once past that obstacle, the three ran through a briar patch. The lamb's wool collected every thorny burr it brushed against. After they reached the other side of that patch, there was just an open field to run across before they would reach the farmhouse.
It was a large, white house that was always kept clean and freshly painted so that it would at all times be impressive from the outside. The mother had seen the boys coming from as far off as the creek, and now she went to the front door to see what they were doing. When the boys reached the porch, their mother opened the door and asked, "Where did you boys get that precious, little lamb?"
"We found it."
"We found it," they answered, almost in unison. "Where did you boys find it?"
"Over there," the younger boy replied, pointing in the general direction from which they had just come.
"How far 'over there'?" the mother asked. "Was it on our property or the neighbors?"
"Well..." the boy paused, and looked at his older brother. The oldest one nodded to him, and they both told her, "Yes".
"And you just happened to be carrying that rope with you when you found it?"
"Uhhh...," the younger boy paused again, and then the older one took charge.
"Well, see, we knew where to find the lamb because Judy Harris saw a stray one and told us where it was."
"If Judy found the lamb, then it's hers, isn't it?"
"But we paid her for telling us where it was," the older boy explained.
"Yeah, we paid her. So it's ours fair and square. We both gave her our fifteen-cent allowance. "
"That's quite a bargain you boys made. And just what do you plan to do with the lamb? It'd be too much trouble to keep."
"We don't want it for a pet. We want you to cook it for our supper."
"What! You could get more meat off of a chicken than you could that poor, little lamb."
"We still want to eat it anyway," the older boy insisted.
"Yeah, Mom, can we?" the younger one begged.
"Oh, I don't know. Go ask your father. See what he says."
"Where is he?"
"I think he and a hired hand are working on something in the barn."
The older boy said, "Okay," and with a jerk on the rope they headed off for the barn. The chickens in the yard scattered with a chorus of clucks and cackles as the boys and the lamb dashed right through the middle of them.
The barn they were running to was in bad shape, compared to the farmhouse. It had a rugged exterior. Boards were missing here and there. The knotholes in the boards that were up made it look like it had been through a war.
When they reached the barn, the oldest boy grabbed a weathered door and pulled it open. As they were stepping inside, the lamb was given another swat with the stick to hurry it along.
The thick storm clouds outside were blocking the sun. This made it particularly dark inside the barn so the boys left the door open to help give them light. As they were entering, they noticed a cow in one of the stalls. It swished its tail to kill a fly and continued chewing its cud.
The boys walked on by and headed for the workbench at the back of the barn. The boys' footsteps were muffled by the straw on the floor as they walked. Their noses were filled with the smell of the cows and their manure. It only took a few moments for them to find the two men.
Their father, who was actually just their step-father, greeted them with a pleasant, "Hi, boys" .
They each replied with a "hi" of their own.
Then their father said, "What have we here?" as he squatted down to pet the lamb.
"It's a lamb we found," the old boy replied. "You found it?"
"Yes," the boys replied .
Then the younger one blurted, "We want to have him for supper."
"’For supper'!" the father repeated in disbelief."Oh, you're surely joking." The father looked at the lamb tenderly and petted it a few more times.
It looked as though the boys weren't going to get their way, so the older one said, "Mom promised to cook it for us if you would slaughter it."
"Did she?" Both of the boys nodded that this was true. "Oh, but it seems like such a waste," their father complained. "This lamb is healthy. There's no reason to kill it."
"But we want to have it for supper," they both insisted. The father looked down at the lamb and petted it again. Everything was quiet for a minute. Then, because he wanted to please the boys, he told his hired helper, Romano, to take the lamb out and slaughter it.
The father stood up and wiped his dirty hands on his work jeans. But that only smeared the filth. It did not get them clean.
Although Romano was not happy with the father's decision, he obediently grabbed some rope, shears, and a large knife then left the barn. The boys followed Romano, pulling and prodding the lamb.
They walked quite a distance to a place outside the fence where it seemed many other animals had been slaughtered before. There was an assortment of bones lying on the ground. The most prominent was a cow's skull.
At first the boys were excited when they gave the lamb to Romano, but they began to feel differently as they watched him start the procedure. The darkening sky helped create an eerie mood for the event.
Romano bent down beside the lamb and reached under it. He grabbed two legs and forced the small animal to fall onto the ground. He tightly bound the lamb's two front legs together with some coarse rope then he secured the two hind legs in the same fashion. Next he reached for the dull shears and started clipping the lamb's wool. He snipped, pulled, and sometimes tore the fleece off.
Through all of this the lamb did not struggle to escape or even make a sound. It accepted the torturous yanks from its shearer without a cry. When he had finished stripping it, Romano collected the scraps of wool into one ball and handed it to the boy nearest to him.
The older boy protested, "Hey, let ME have that."
"No, he gave it to ME," the younger one insisted.
"But I want it," the older boy demanded.
So, to keep the boys from fighting, Romano had to divide the fleece evenly between the two.
Returning to his work, Romano went to a nearby dogwood tree and cut it down. The boys watched closely as Romano cleaned all the branches off the little tree. When he finished, he had a short, straight pole. The boys were so intrigued they barely noticed the sprinkles of rain that were beginning to drop upon them.
Romano carried the pole back to where the lamb lay waiting. He slid the pole between the lamb's two, tied, front legs and pushed it father until it went between the two hind legs
as well.
With a firm grasp on both ends of the pole Romano lifted the animal up by its legs and carried it over to two, tall stones which stood a few feet apart. He set one end of the pole upon one stone, and then placed the other end on top of the second, tall stone.
The sprinkles had now turned into rain. Everybody was get- ting wet. The boys took their balls of wool and ran for the barn. The lamb was hanging upside down by its bound feet. Romano went to get the knife had had left on the ground.
It began to pour down even harder. The rain fell so hard that it hurt. Romano wanted to finish the job by slitting the lamb's throat, but he was getting drenched by the torrents of rain. So, he followed the boys and left the lamb dangling on the pole.
Once they all reached the barn they waited inside with their father for what seemed to be hours. It was a long, uncomfortable wait for Romano and the boys because they were so wet. But after a long time, the hammering rain did finally stop.
It was still sprinkling lightly when a friend, a rich man from a nearby farm, dropped by to visit with the father. At about that time Romano decided he should go make sure the lamb was out
of its misery. He took his sword-like knife and walked out across the sloppy field of mud. And, of course, the boys followed right behind him.
Once they were on the other side of the fence they could see the drooping lamb. Each one's eyes were fixed upon it the rest of the way, but no one detected any movement. The boys were ten feet away when they stopped, but Romano walked right up to
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