their tails behind them.

LITTLE BO-PEEP

Alice is seven years old to-day.

She is going to have a birthday party.

Alice's aunt wrote the invitations, and Alice gave them to all her little school friends.

The invitation said:—

"Little Bo-peep is to have a birthday party. She would like to have you come and help her take care of her sheep. Please come Friday afternoon after school."

Of course the children asked Alice about her party.

"Are you little Bo-peep?" they said.

"Have you lost your sheep?

"Are we going to help you find them?"

"No," said Alice, "But my sheep have lost their tails, I think.

"You'll know all about it on Friday."

At last it was Friday afternoon.

The children came to school all dressed for the party.

It was very hard to wait.

How slowly the clock ticked!

Two o'clock! Three o'clock! Four o'clock, at last!

The children ran almost all the way to Alice's house.

When they were all ready Alice put on a tall cap.

Then she took a long crook and stood in the middle of the floor.

As she called the names of the children they stood in a line behind her.

Then they began to march and sing:

The children marched around the room, and through the hall into the dining-room.

There they saw a big green curtain, and there they found the sheep.

"She found them, indeed, but it made her heart bleed, For they'd left their tails behind them."

Sure enough! There was a sheep on the curtain, but it had no tail.

There were some tails in a box on the table.

Bo-peep's mother gave one of them to each of the children.

"Now," said Bo-peep, "I will try first to pin a tail on the sheep."

So her mother tied a handkerchief over her eyes, turned her around three times, and said, "Go."

Bo-peep started off bravely, and pinned the tail to her mother's apron!

How the children laughed! and Bo-peep laughed too, when she saw what she had done.

Boy Blue was sure he could pin a tail on the sheep.

But he pinned it right on the corner of the table cloth.

Then it was Mary's turn. She shut her eyes tight and walked very straight.

She was going to pin the tail in just the right place.

All the children stood still and watched her cross the room.

She pinned on the tail, and how they all shouted!

She had put it into the sheep's mouth.

But she did better than any one else.

So Bo-peep's mother gave her a little woolly lamb to take home to her baby brother.

All the children had a good time at the party.

They played games and ate ice-cream and cake and candy.

Then they sang songs, and Alice's mother told them some stories.

Last of all they sang "Little Bo-peep" again.

And to this day they call Alice "Little Bo-peep."

HICKORY, DICKORY, DOCK

It was very quiet all over the house.

Little Boy Blue was fast asleep, dreaming of Santa Claus.

Boy Blue's father and mother were asleep, too, but I don't know what they were dreaming about.

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Hark! Was that