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