In high and low, above, below, In great and small, in round and square, She's past the bridge that's in the dale, And now the thought torments her sore, Johnny perhaps his horse forsook, To hunt the moon that's in the brook, And never will be heard of more. And now she's high upon the down, Alone amid a prospect wide; There's neither Johnny nor his Horse There's neither Doctor nor his Guide. "Oh saints! what is become of him? Perhaps he's climbed into an oak, And joined the wandering gypsy-folk. Or him that wicked Pony's carried At poor old Susan then she railed, Poor Betty, in this sad distemper, And now she's got into the town, And to the Doctor's door she hies; 'Tis silence all on every side; The town so long, the town so wide, Is silent as the skies. And now she's at the Doctor's door, She lifts the knocker, rap, rap, rap; 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." "O woe is me! O woe is me! She stops, she stands, she looks about, Which way to turn she cannot tell. Poor Betty! it would ease her pain If she had heart to knock again; -The clock strikes three-a dismal knell ! Then up along the town she hies, No wonder if her senses fail, This piteous news so much it shocked her, She quite forgot to send the Doctor, And now she's high upon the down, She listens, but she cannot hear The foot of horse, the voice of man; The streams with softest sounds are flowing, The grass you almost hear it growing, You hear it now if e'er you can. VOL. I. The Owlets through the long blue night Fond lovers! yet not quite hob nob, Poor Betty now has lost all hope, Her thoughts are bent on deadly sin : A green-grown pond she just has past, And from the brink she hurries fast, Lest she should drown herself therein. And now she sits her down and weeps ; Such tears she never shed before; And we will ne'er o'erload thee more." A thought is come into her head: |