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119.

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 still they were 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 all their tails behind 'em.

It happen'd one day, as Bo-peep did stray,
Under 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 could, as a shepherdess should, To tack again each to its rump-o.

120.

ABOUT the bush, Willy,
About the bee-hive,
About the bush, Willy,
I'll meet thee alive.

Then to my ten shillings, Add you but a groat, I'll go to Newcastle, And buy a new coat.

Five and five shillings,
Five and a crown;

Five and five shillings,

Will buy a new gown.

Five and five shillings,
Five and a groat;
Five and five shillings,

Will buy a new coat.

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[The first line of this nursery rhyme is quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bonduca," Act v. sc. 2. It is probable also that Sir Toby alludes to this song in "Twelfth Night," Act ii. sc. 2, when he says, "Come on; there is sixpence for you; let's have a song." In "Epulario, or the Italian banquet," 1589, is a receipt "to make pies so that the birds may be alive in them, and flie out when it is cut up," a mere device, live birds being introduced after the pie is made. This may be the original subject of the following song.]

SING a song of sixpence,
A bag full of rye;

Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie;

When the pie was open'd,

The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting-house
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey;

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
There came a little blackbird,
And snapt off her nose.

Jenny was so mad,

She didn't know what to do; She put her finger in her ear,

And crack'd it right in two.

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THERE was a girl in our towne,
Silk an' satin was her gowne,
Silk an' satin, gold an' velvet,

Guess her name, three times I've tell'd it.

II

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