look, mother! They 've all left their tails behind them!" "Why, so they have!" exclaimed the old woman; and then she began to laugh 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 in winter-time, you know;" and then she patted the child upon her head and walked away down the valley. Bo-Peep was much grieved over the loss that had befallen her dear sheep, and so, driving them before her, she wandered around to see if by any chance she could find the lost tails. But soon the sun began to sink over the hill-tops, and she knew she must take her sheep home before night overtook them. She did not tell her mother of her misfortune, for she feared the old shepherdess would scold her, and Bo-Peep had fully decided to seek for the tails and find them before she related the story of their loss to anyone. Each day for many days after that Little Bo-Peep wandered about the hills seeking the tails of her sheep, and those who met her wondered what had happened to make the sweet little maid so anxious. But there is an end to all troubles, no matter how severe they may seem to be, and 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! The little shepherdess was overjoyed at this discovery, and, reaching up her crook, she knocked the row of pretty white tails off the tree and gathered them up in her frock. But how to fasten them onto her sheep again was the question, and after pondering the matter for a time she became discouraged, and, thinking she was no better off than before the 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!" Then She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye And ran o'er hill and dale, oh. And tried what she could As a shepherdess should, To tack to each sheep its tail, oh.