Little Bo Peep

Saying for the Day-Every Nursery rhyme has a history and a story behind it.

It’s Thursday and time for another elf tale.
Once upon a time so long ago that poems were written about it there lived a woman of very small stature. She was so small that everyone referred to her as little. Her name was Bo Peep. But everybody called her Little Bo Beep.
She lived in the little village of Downsula Minnesota which is right across the border from Upsula Canada. Little Bo Peep raised sheep for a living. She had a huge flock and lived fairly well. But one morning she got up and the sheep were gone.
Somehow the gate on the sheep pen had gotten open and they ,as sheep will , all wandered away. Well poor Little Bo Peep was beside herself. She looked and looked but didn’t find a single little lamb. Finally she called the sheriff. My sheep have wandered away she told him.
“ Let me get this straight” he said. “Your Little Bo Peep and you have lost your sheep and can’t tell where to find them”.
“That’s exactly right she said”
“I’m sorry”, he said” This office does not chase sheep , cows, chickens , rabbits, or horses. Perhaps, Bille can help you”.
Now Billie was the kindest, smartest person in all of Downsula. So great was his reputation that people even came down from Upsula to Downsula just to get his advice. So Little Bo Peep went to see Billie. Billie she said “ My sheep have wandered away and I can’t find them.
Billie said” Perhaps if you leave them alone they will come home bringing their tails behind them.”
So Little Bo Peep went home and did nothing. The next day she did nothing. But the day after when they still hadn’t come home she went to see Billie again. “Billie”, she said,” They still haven’t come back. I have waited and waited and my little heart is breaking.”
Again Billie thought for a bit and then said “ My mother always said that to change bad luck into good you have to do a good deed”.
Little Bo Peep ,who was a kind and caring person by nature ,thought that sounded like a good idea. She saw the old man next door trying to mow his lawn with one of those old push mowers. She made him a glass of lemonade with ice and had him sit on the porch and drink it while she finished his lawn with her power mower. He was so thankful that he wanted to pay her but she refused saying that it was reward enough to see him happy.
On the way home she was joined by a man in a green suit who was a short as she was and who had funny green shoes that curled at the toes.
“I’m an elf”, he said “and because of your good deed I am going to give you one wish. Use it well.”
Little Bo Peep , without even thinking , blurted out.”I wish that all the lost sheep would come home to me”.
The little man had a funny look on his face but said “ As you wish so shall it be.”
The next hour was so exciting. All of her sheep returned to the pen and it looked like there were even a few extra. Little Bo Peep was so very happy.
But then it happened. The sheep kept coming. By the next day there were so many sheep that the entire town of Downsula was filled with sheep. All the roads in and out of town were crowded with sheep. Sheep were pouring across the border from Upsula. It seemed as if every lost sheep in the world was on it’s way to Little Bo Peep’s house. Even Mary’s little lamb that usually followed her to school was on its way to Downsula. Sheep in Australia and England were leaping into the ocean and trying to swim to America. There was a worldwide sheep crisis.
Little Bo Peep called Billie . She couldn’t go and visit him because the sheep were pressed so tightly together that she would have had to walk across the top of them. She told Billie what had happened. He didn’t even laugh when she told him about the elf though nobody else believed her. Billie said he didn’t know how to undo an elf wish but he would call his Uncle Billie who he was named after and was a practicing Psychologist.
So Billie called his uncle Billie and told him the story. Uncle Billie said that an elf wish once changed his life and the person who made the wish still had one left and might be able to help.
So Billie called John Fortress, the name his uncle gave him. It seemed that John did still have the wish left. He did want to help but with an elf wish you had to be very careful. If he wished that all the sheep would go back to their original owners they would end up with their very first owners and not the people who owned them when the wish was granted. In addition all the sheep that had thrown themselves off of cliffs or drowned in the ocean would be lost forever. He finally decided that the best course of action was to simply wish everything back to the way it was before the wish was granted. So he blew his elf whistle and the elf came.
He wished every thing back as it was before Little Bo Peep’s wish. There was the usual “ As you wish so shall it be” and everything was back the way it was before.
Little Bo Peep’s sheep were still lost but you could walk in Downsula again. Little Bo Peep just gave up and cried herself to sleep.
Three long days went by and then one by one the sheep returned wagging their tails behind them. She should have listened to Billie in the first place .
Just remember a bad elf wish can fill your town with sheep and sheep manure . The manure is a separate problem but it’s there.
#### News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal. Petrovich has donated several thousand dollars to the new museum fund. He is also making some replicas of the original Old Coptic driblets to display at the museum. He sees it as a chance to share the Seer Alexis Grengicoff with a wider group of people. He has also prepared a pamphlet on the life and times of Seer Alexis Grengicoff to be available, free of charge at the museum.
Nancy is going to donate some of the items that she has been saving all these years. To her they are family treasures but she will share them for the good of the community.
Wink’s Woods contributed a $1000 to the fund and Kivi&Maki also contributed $1000. Anything that brings people to the town is good for their business.
There will be a dragon room. It will have stories of the local dragon as well as little dragon statues and some pictures. Mrs. Trumble is not happy about this . She says that you shouldn’t have a room for a demon.
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Today's Link-Morning Martini-A Look at the Hillary Campaign but not by me.
An interesting day. I started by over sleeping so my blog was a little late in getting posted. I visited all my links. In the afternoon we went to the garage and found all the G scale track to add to what is in the basement. Then we went to the basement and sorted out three more boxes to sell on eBay. My sister Dawn called and we talked for a long time. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA