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
Among the fern or in the gorse;

There's neither Doctor nor his Guide.

"Oh saints! what is become of him?

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,
The Doctor's self would hardly spare,
Unworthy things she talked and wild,

Even he, of cattle the most mild,

The Pony had his share.

And now she's got into the town,

And to the Doctor's door she hies; "Tis silence all on every side e;

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 ;

The Doctor at the casement shows

His glimmering eyes that peep and dose;
And one hand rubs his old night-cap.

"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!
Here, will I die; here will I die;

I thought to find my Johnny here,
But he is neither far nor near,

Oh! what a wretched Mother I!"

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,

To comfort poor old Susan Gale.

And now she's high upon the down,
And she can see a mile of road;
"Oh cruel! I'm almost threescore ;
Such night as this was ne'er before,
There's not a single soul abroad."

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.