LITTLE Bo-peep has lost her sheep,

   And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they'll come home,

   Dragging 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 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 all their tails behind 'em.

Old Nurse's Book: Of Rhymes, Jingles and Ditties. Ed. and Illus. by Charles H. Bennett. London, England: Griffith and Farran, 1857. [Facsimile edition reproduced from The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. Toronto Public Library by Holp Shuppan, Publishers, Tokyo 1981.] p. 21.

LITTLE BO-PEEP has lost her sheep,

   And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they'll come home,

   And bring 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,

   Determin'd for to find them;

She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,

   For they'd left all their tails behind 'em.

Lang, Andrew, Ed. The Nursery Rhyme Book. Illus. by L. Leslie Brooke. London, England: Frederick Warne and Co., 1897, p. 92.

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,

   And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, and they'll come home,

   And bring 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 all 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

   Into 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 over the hillocks went rambling,

And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,

   To tack again each to its lambkin.

Opie, Iona and Peter Opie, Comps. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1951, pp. 93-94. No. 66

Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,

   And can't tell where to find them:

Let them alone, and they'll come home,

   And bring 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 all fleeting.



Then up she took her little crook,

   Determin'd for to find them;

She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,

   For they'd left their tails behind 'em.



It happen'd one day, as Bo-peep did stray,

   Into a meadow hard by;

There she espy'd their tails side by side,

   All hung on a tree to dry.



She heav'd a sigh, and wip'd her eye,

   And over the hillocks went stump-o,

And tried what she cou'd, as a shepherdess shou'd,

   To tack again each to its rump-o

Baring-Gould, William S. and Cecil Baring-Gould, Eds. The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New. New York: Bramhall House, 1962, p. 93. No. 112 .