Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/302

192 Have ye ever watched it budding,

With each stem and leaf wrapped small

Coiled up within each other

Like a round and hairy ball?

Have ye watched that ball unfolding

Each closely nestling curl,

And its fair and feathery leaflets

Their spreading forms unfurl?

Oh! then most gracefully they wave

In the forest, like a sea,

And dear as they are beautiful

Are those Fern leaves to me.

For all of early childhood—

Those past and blessed years

To which we ever wistfully

Look back through memory's tears—

The sports and fancies then my own,

Those Fern-leaves dear and wild

Bring back to my delighted heart—

I am once more a child—

"Oh! cull the tallest, fairest branch,

My banner it shall be,

And twine a circlet for my brow,—

Crown me all royally:

A Foxglove sceptre my right hand

So gravely shall sustain:"—

Oh! blessings on the bonny Fern—

I am a child again!