1. Mary’s Little Lamb

It’s more of a nursery rhyme than a legendary object, Mary and her little lamb both very much existed. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a story based on the activities of Mary Sawyer, a young girl in Sterling, Massachusetts, during the early 1800s.

Unlike the children’s tale, the real Mary rescued her lamb after its mother rejected it. Sawyer recalled how the little lamb “could not swallow,” so she nursed it to health. After that, the lamb really did follow her around, even tagging along to school on one occasion:

The day the lamb went to school, I hadn’t seen her before starting off; and not wanting to go without seeing her, I called. She recognized my voice, and soon I heard a faint bleating far down the field. More and more distinctly I heard it, and I knew my pet was coming to greet me. My brother Nat said, “Let’s take the lamb to school with us.”

Mary and Nat took the lamb with them, hid it until their teacher heard it bleat, and then took it outside.