Did Sarah Josepha Hale write “Mary’s Little Lamb,” the eternal nursery rhyme (儿歌) about a girl named Mary with a stubborn lamb? This is still disputed, but it’s clear that the woman (26)_____ for writing it was one of America’s most fascinating (27)_____ . In honor of the poem’s publication on May 24,1830, here’s more about the (28)_____ author’s life.
Hale wasn’t just a writer, she was also a (29)_____ social advocate, and she was particularly (30)_____ with an ideal New England, which she associated with abundant Thanksgiving meals that she claimed had “a deep moral influence.” She began a nationwide (31)_____ to have a national holiday declared that would bring families together while celebrating the (32)_____ festivals. In 1863, after 17 years of advocacy including letters to five presidents, Hale got it. President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, issued a (33)_____ setting aside the last Thursday in November for the holiday.
The true authorship of “Mary’s Little Lamb” is disputed. According to New England Historical Society, Hale wrote only one part of the poem, but claimed authorship. Regardless of the author, it seems that the poem was (34)_____ by a real event. When young Mary Sawyer was followed to school by a lamb in 1816, it caused some problems. A bystander named John Roulstone wrote a poem about the event, then, at some point, Hale herself seems to have helped write it. However, if a 1916 piece by her great-niece is to be trusted, Hale claimed for the (35)_____ of her life that “some other people pretended that someone else wrote the poem”.
