Week 1 Storytelling:Little Bo-Peep and her Precious Sheep

There once was a young lady who stood less than five feet tall named Bo-Peep. Her big brown eyes took up most of her face, and gleamed with hope and sunshine. She was so precious and lovely that no person could dare do her harm. Because of this, her parents allowed her to keep track of their sheep. Any robber who came to take their sheep would take one look at little Bo-Peep, and have their heart of stone melted to a soft mush. They would swiftly walk away doing no harm to the property.

Bo-Peep took her responsibility of taking care of the sheep very seriously. So seriously, she began to view them as her own children. She smothered the sheep with love, almost to a fault. The sheep began to feel suffocated under her care. One day the sheep decided they needed to get away, if only for a little while. They snuck away while Bo-Peep went inside the house to fetch her lunch.

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.

Young girl holding onto sheep

Photo author unknown, circa 1940. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bo-Peep returned outside to find her beloved sheep missing. She broke down and cried; tears ran down her face until her clothes became soaked. She cried so hard that she became exhausted, and fell asleep early that evening. She woke up every few hours to check if they had come back, but found herself still alone each time.

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.

Meanwhile the sheep were enjoying their adventure. They stayed out late, and found a man with crooked teeth to play cards with. He fed them fine food, and brought out his best drinks. He offered them warm baths, and scrubbed them each until their coats were fluffy and white. The sheep picked up on card games quickly, and even learned how to gamble with stones the man with crooked teeth passed out to each of them. He then made them a bet, for their wool and their tails, which the sheep could not resist.

Bo-Peep awoke in the morning feeling determined to find her little loves. She set out for a long journey, and walked for miles until she no longer recognized her surroundings. Finally she found them all in a ditch. They were bald, cold, dirty, shaking, and bleeding where their tails had once been. They wailed out their apologies, and vowed to never leave her again. Bo-Peep was devastated, and felt like she had failed her flock. From then on Bo-Peep’s heart ached each time she looked at their little nub tails. She often wondered if she’d ever find a way to forgive herself.

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.

Author’s Notes and Bibliography

The story written above is based off the nursery rhyme, “Little Bo-Peep” which is quoted in italics throughout the story. You can find this nursery rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). The rhyme is simply about a little girl who looses her sheep, and finds them again without their tails. I tried to think of reasons the sheep might have run away from home, and began to think of Bo-Peep as a type of controlling helicopter parent. Following that same train of thought, I considered what sometimes happens to kids who are sheltered by those types of parents once they get to college. Sometimes they go wild with their first real taste of freedom, and learn some life lessons the hard way.