"Nay, Betty, go! good Betty, go! "There's nothing that can ease my pain." Then off she hies, but with a prayer That God poor Susan's life would spare, Till she comes back again. So, through the moonlight lane she goes, And far into the moonlight dale; And how she ran, and how she walked, And all that to herself she talked, Would surely be a tedious tale. In high and low, above, below, In bush and brake, in black and green, 'Twas Johnny, Johnny, every where. H She's past the bridge that's in the dale, And now the thought torments her sore, To hunt the moon that's in the brook, And now she's high upon the down, There's neither Johnny nor his Horse There's neither Doctor nor his Guide. "Oh saints! what is become of him? 66 Perhaps he's climbed into an oak, "Where he will stay till he is dead; "Or, sadly he has been misled, "And joined the wandering gypsey-folk. "Or him that wicked Pony's carried "To the dark cave, the goblin's hall; "Or in the castle he's pursuing, "Among the ghosts, his own undoing; "Or playing with the waterfall." At poor old Susan then she railed, While to the town she posts away; "If Susan had not been so ill, "Alas! I should have had him still, 'My Johnny, till my dying day." Poor Betty! in this sad distemper, And now she's got into the town, And to the Doctor's door she hies; The town so long, the town so wide, And now she's at the Doctor's door, She lifts the knocker, rap, rap, rap; The Doctor at the casement shews His glimmering eyes that peep and dose; "Oh Doctor! Doctor! where's my Johnny?" "I'm here, what is't you want with me?" "Oh Sir! you know I'm Betty Foy, "And I have lost my poor dear Boy, "You know him-him you often see; "He's not so wise as some folks be," "The devil take his wisdom!" said The Doctor, looking somewhat grim, What, Woman! should I know of him?" And, grumbling, he went back to bed. "O woe is me! O woe is me! "Oh! what a wretched Mother I !" She stops, she stands, she looks about, Poor Betty! it would ease her pain If she had heart to knock again; -The clock strikes three-a dismal knell ! |