POEM

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
And can't tell where to find them.
Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke,
she found it a joke,
For they were still a-fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,
Determined for to find them;
She found them indeed,
but it made her heart bleed,
For they'd left their tails behind them.

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Unto a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails,
side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And ran o'er hill and dale,
And tried what she could,
as a shepherdess should,
To tack each sheep to its tail.