No More Learning

"

And Susan's growing worse and worse,
And Betty's in a sad _quandary_;
And then there's nobody to say
If she must go, or she must stay! 170
--She's in a sad _quandary_.

The clock is on the stroke of one;
But neither Doctor nor his Guide
Appears [15] along the moonlight road;
There's neither horse nor man abroad, 175
And Betty's still at Susan's side.

And Susan now begins to fear [16]
Of sad mischances not a few,
That Johnny may perhaps be drowned;
Or lost, perhaps, and never found; 180
Which they must both for ever rue.

She prefaced half a hint of this
With, "God forbid it should be true! "
At the first word that Susan said
Cried Betty, rising from the bed, 185
"Susan, I'd gladly stay with you.

"I must be gone, I must away:
Consider, Johnny's but half-wise;
Susan, we must take care of him,
If he is hurt in life or limb"-- 190
"Oh God forbid! " poor Susan cries.

"What can I do? " says Betty, going,
"What can I do to ease your pain?
Good Susan tell me, and I'll stay;
I fear you're in a dreadful way, 195
But I shall soon be back again. "

"Nay, Betty, [17] 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, 200
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, 205
Would surely be a tedious tale.

In high and low, above, below,
In great and small, in round and square,
In tree and tower was Johnny seen,
In bush and brake, in black and green; 210
'Twas Johnny, Johnny, every where.

And while she crossed the bridge, there came
A thought with which her heart is sore--[18]
Johnny perhaps his horse forsook,
To hunt the moon within the brook, [19] 215
And never will be heard of more.

Now is she high [20] upon the down,
Alone amid a prospect wide;
There's neither Johnny nor his Horse
Among the fern or in the gorse; 220
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, 225
And joined the wandering gipsy-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; 230
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, 235
My Johnny, till my dying day. "

Poor Betty, in this sad distemper,
The Doctor's self could [21] hardly spare:
Unworthy things she talked, and wild;
Even he, of cattle the most mild, 240
The Pony had his share.

But now she's fairly in the town, [22]
And to the Doctor's door she hies;
'Tis silence all on every side;
The town so long, the town so wide, 245
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 doze! 250
And one hand rubs his old night-cap.

"Oh Doctor! Doctor!