The five of us stood in the pleasant hall;
And four were policemen, and one was I;
And Harry had never come home at all;
And the clock struck one with a gasping sigh.
My heart grew cold, and my courage ran down;
I pinch'd my finger--I tried _not_ to scream--
I felt like a creature about to drown,
And I cried aloud 'It MUST be a dream!'
I angrily spoke,--and I spoke out loud;
I _knew_ 'twas a dream and nothing in it;
I spurn'd the dream with a gesture proud,
And ORDERED myself to wake that minute.
Of course, I just fell asleep where I sat,
And this is a dream--yes I know it is--
But O it is stranger than dreaming, that
Harry has not waken'd me with a kiss!
I looked at the men, who are searching round,
And taking a note of all they can find;
Examining ceiling and walls and ground,--
--I am surely going out of my mind!
I said to myself in a coaxing way--
'I am wide awake, and he _has_ come back;
Harry is acting a sort of a play:
He has dress'd himself up, and so has Jack.'
A glance or a signal dispers'd the men:
Two went upstairs, and another below;
The leader sat down in the hall; and then--
What am _I_ to do? Where am _I_ to go?
I rush'd to the door, and I flung it wide--
A frighten'd creature can anything dare--
And I saw the darkness that lay outside,
And I heard the silence--and nothing was there.
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