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!
