She looks again—her arms are up— And Johnny burrs, and laughs aloud; I cannot tell but while he laughs, And now she's at the Pony's tail, She kisses o'er and o'er again Him whom she loves, her Idiot Boy; She pats the Pony, where or when "Oh! Johnny, never mind the Doctor : You've done your best, and that is all;" She took the reins, when this was said, And gently turned the Pony's head From the loud waterfall. By this the stars were almost gone, The Pony, Betty, and her Boy, That hobbles up the steep, rough road? Long time lay Susan lost in thought; She turned, she tossed herself in bed, Point after point did she discuss : "Alas! what is become of them? Away she goes up hill and down, She spies her friends, she shouts a greeting: As ever was in Christendom! The owls have hardly sung their last, For while they all were travelling home, Now Johnny all night long had heard And thus, to Betty's question, he Wordsworth. STRAY PLEASURES. "Pleasure is spread through the earth In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find." By their floating mill, That lies dead and still, Behold yon prisoners three, The miller with two dames, on the breast of the Thames ! The platform is small, but gives room for all; And they're dancing merrily. From the shore come the notes To their mill where it floats, To their house and their mill tethered fast: To the small wooden isle where, their work to beguile, They from morning to even take whatever is given ; And many a blithe day they have past. In sight of the spires, All alive with the fires Of the sun going down to his rest, In the broad open eye of the solitary sky, They dance, there are three, as jocund as free, While they dance on the calm river's breast. Men and Maidens wheel, They themselves make the reel, And their music's a prey which they seize : It plays not for them,-what matter? 'tis theirs ; And if they had care, it has scattered their cares, While they dance, crying, "Long as ye please!" They dance not for me, Yet mine is their glee ! Thus pleasure is spread through the earth In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find: Thus a rich loving-kindness, redundantly kind, Moves all nature to gladness and mirth. |