Little Bo-PeepOn the beautiful, undulating hills of Sussex feed many flocks of sheep,which are tended by many shepherds and shepherdesses, and one of theseflocks used to be cared for by a poor woman who supported herself andher little girl by this means.They lived in a small cottage nestled at the foot of one of the hills,and each morning the mother took her crook and started out with hersheep, that they might feed upon the tender, juicy grasses with whichthe hills abounded. The little girl usually accompanied her motherand sat by her side upon the grassy mounds and watched her care forthe ewes and lambs, so that in time she herself grew to be a veryproficient shepherdess.So when the mother became too old and feeble to leave her cottage,Little Bo-Peep (as she was called) decided that she was fully ableto manage the flocks herself. She was a little mite of a child, withflowing nut-brown locks and big gray eyes that charmed all who gazedinto their innocent depths. She wore a light gray frock, fastened aboutthe waist with a pretty pink sash, and there were white ruffles aroundher neck and pink ribbons in her hair.All the shepherds and shepherdesses upon the hills, both young and old,soon came to know Little Bo-Peep very well indeed, and there were manywilling hands to aid her if (which was not often) she needed theirassistance.Bo-Peep usually took her sheep to the side of a high hill above thecottage, and allowed them to eat the rich grass while she herself satupon a mound and, laying aside her crook and her broad straw hat withits pink ribbons, devoted her time to sewing and mending stockings forher aged mother.One day, while thus occupied, she heard a voice beside her say:"Good morning, Little Bo-Peep!" and looking up the girl saw a womanstanding near her and leaning upon a short stick. She was bent nearlydouble by weight of many years, her hair was white as snow and hereyes as black as coals. Deep wrinkles seamed her face and hands, whileher nose and chin were so pointed that they nearly met. She was notpleasant to look upon, but Bo-Peep had learned to be polite to theaged, so she answered, sweetly,"Good morning, mother. Can I do anything for you?""No, dearie," returned the woman, in a cracked voice, "but I will sitby your side and rest for a time."The girl made room on the mound beside her, and the stranger sat downand watched in silence the busy fingers sew up the seams of the newfrock she was making.By and by the woman asked,"Why do you come out here to sew?""Because I am a shepherdess," replied the girl."But where is your crook?""On the grass beside me.""And where are your sheep?"Bo-Peep looked up and could not see them."They must have strayed over the top of the hill," she said, "and Iwill go and seek them.""Do not be in a hurry," croaked the old woman; "they will returnpresently without your troubling to find them.""Do you think so?" asked Bo-Peep."Of course; do not the sheep know you?""Oh, yes; they know me every one.""And do not you know the sheep?""I can call every one by name," said Bo-Peep, confidently; "for thoughI am so young a shepherdess I am fond of my sheep and know all aboutthem."The old woman chuckled softly, as if the answer amused her, and replied,"No one knows all about anything, my dear.""But I know all about my sheep," protested Little Bo-Peep."Do you, indeed? Then you are wiser that most people. And if you knowall about them, you also know they will come home of their own accord,and I have no doubt they will all be wagging their tails behind them,as usual.""Oh," said Little Bo-Peep, in surprise, "do they wag their tails? Inever noticed that!""Indeed!" exclaimed the old woman, "then you are not very observing forone who knows all about sheep. Perhaps you have never noticed theirtails at all.""No," answered Bo-Peep, thoughtfully, "I don't know that I ever have."The woman laughed so hard at this reply that she began to cough, andthis made the girl remember that her flock had strayed away."I really must go and find my sheep," she said, rising to her feet,"and then I shall be sure to notice their tails, and see if they wagthem.""Sit still, my child," said the old woman, "I am going over thehill-top myself, and I will send the sheep back to you."So she got upon her feet and began climbing the hill, and the girlheard her saying, as she walked away,"Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,And doesn't know where to find 'em.But leave 'em alone, and they'll come home,All wagging their tails behind 'em."Little Bo-Peep sat still and watched the old woman toil slowly up thehill-side and disappear over the top. By and by she thought, "very soonI shall see the sheep coming back;" but time passed away and still theerrant flock failed to make its appearance.Soon the head of the little shepherdess began to nod, and presently,still thinking of her sheep,Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,And dreamt she heard them bleating;But when she awoke she found it a joke,For still they were a-fleeting.The girl now became quite anxious, and wondered why the old womanhad not driven her flock over the hill. But as it was now time forluncheon she opened her little basket and ate of the bread and cheeseand cookies she had brought with her. After she had finished her mealand taken a drink of cool water from a spring near by, she decided shewould not wait any longer.So up she took her little crook,Determined for to find them,and began climbing the hill.When she got to the top there was never a sight of sheep about--only agreen valley and another hill beyond.Now really alarmed for the safety of her charge, Bo-Peep hurried intothe valley and up the farther hill-side. Panting and tired she reachedthe summit, and, pausing breathlessly, gazed below her.Quietly feeding upon the rich grass was her truant flock, looking aspeaceful and innocent as if it had never strayed away from its gentleshepherdess.Bo-Peep uttered a cry of joy and hurried toward them; but when shecame near she stopped in amazement and held up her little hands with apretty expression of dismay. She hadFound them, indeed, but it made her heart bleed,For they'd left their tails behind them!Nothing was left to each sheep but a wee little stump where a tailshould be, and Little Bo-Peep was so heart-broken that she sat downbeside them and sobbed bitterly.But after awhile the tiny maid realized that all her tears would notbring back the tails to her lambkins; so she plucked up courage anddried her eyes and arose from the ground just as the old woman hobbledup to her."So you have found your sheep, dearie," she said, in her cracked voice."Yes," replied Little Bo-Peep, with difficulty repressing a sob; "butlook, mother! They've all left their tails behind them!""Why, so they have!" exclaimed the old woman; and then she began tolaugh as if something pleased her."What do you suppose has become of their tails?" asked the girl."Oh, some one has probably cut them off. They make nice tippets inwinter-time, you know;" and then she patted the child upon her head andwalked away down the valley.Bo-Peep was much grieved over the loss that had befallen her dearsheep, and so, driving them before her, she wandered around to see ifby any chance she could find the lost tails.But soon the sun began to sink over the hill-tops, and she knew shemust take her sheep home before night overtook them.She did not tell her mother of her misfortune, for she feared the oldshepherdess would scold her, and Bo-Peep had fully decided to seek forthe tails and find them before she related the story of their loss toany one.Each day for many days after that Little Bo-Peep wandered about thehills seeking the tails of her sheep, and those who met her wonderedwhat had happened to make the sweet little maid so anxious. But thereis an end to all troubles, no matter how severe they may seem to be, andIt happened one day, as Bo-Peep did strayUnto a meadow hard by,There she espied their tails side by side,All hung on a tree to dry!The little shepherdess was overjoyed at this discovery, and, reachingup her crook, she knocked the row of pretty white tails off the treeand gathered them up in her frock. But how to fasten them onto hersheep again was the question, and after pondering the matter for a timeshe became discouraged, and, thinking she was no better off than beforethe tails were found, she began to weep and to bewail her misfortune.But amidst her tears she bethought herself of her needle and thread."Why," she exclaimed, smiling again, "I can sew them on, of course!"ThenShe heaved a sigh and wiped her eyeAnd ran o'er hill and dale, oh,And tried what she couldAs a shepherdess should,To tack to each sheep its tail, oh.But the very first sheep she came to refused to allow her to sew onthe tail, and ran away from her, and the others did the same, so thatfinally she was utterly discouraged.She was beginning to cry again, when the same old woman she had beforemet came hobbling to her side and asked,"What are you doing with my cat tails?""Your cat tails!" replied Bo-Peep, in surprise; "what do you mean?""Why, these tails are all cut from white pussy-cats, and I put them onthe tree to dry. What are you doing with them?""I thought they belonged to my sheep," answered Bo-Peep, sorrowfully;"but if they are really your pussy-cat tails, I must hunt until I findthose that belong to my sheep.""My dear," said the old woman, "I have been deceiving you; you saidyou knew all about your sheep, and I wanted to teach you a lesson.For, however wise we may be, no one in this world knows _all_ aboutanything. Sheep do not have long tails--there is only a little stump toanswer for a tail. Neither do rabbits have tails, nor bears, nor manyother animals. And if you had been observing you would have known allthis when I said the sheep would be wagging their tails behind them,and then you would not have passed all those days in searching for whatis not to be found. So now, little one, run away home, and try to bemore thoughtful in the future. Your sheep will never miss the tails,for they have never had them."And nowLittle Bo-Peep no more did weep;My tale of tails ends here.Each cat has one,But sheep have none;Which, after all, is queer!
