And So To Bed

When children cannot get to sleep

I’m told they take to counting sheep;

And even grown-up Dads and Mothers

Fall asleep, like many others,

By the curious device

Of seeing sheep before their eyes.

 

But when a lamb is sent to bed,

And cannot get to sleep, instead,

How – does anyone suppose –

Can he bring himself to doze?

The answer is – as any sheep’ll

Tell you – it’s by counting people!

 

For sheep consider people are

The oddest animals by far;

With only half as many feet

As any others that they meet;

And heads so high up in the air

That one can hardly see they’re there!

 

And heaven knows how they can eat,

With mouths so far above their feet;

Or be so pitifully dull

Without a decent fleece or wool;

Nor why their second legs reside

Like penguins’ – useless at their side!

 

So, given people are so odd,

The journey to the land of Nod

Is quite a cosy pleasure when

A lamb compares himself to men;

And, counting them, he drifts to sleep

With gratitude that he’s a sheep!

                    _____________

 

( from ‘Bertie and the Younger Set’)