Birds and all Nature, Vol. IV, No 3, September 1898

<h2><SPAN name="THE_PETRIFIED_FERN" id="THE_PETRIFIED_FERN"></SPAN>THE PETRIFIED FERN.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span style="margin-left:-1em;"> <ANTIMG src="images/initial_i_2.jpg" width-obs="12" height-obs="25" alt="I" title="" /> N a valley, centuries ago,</span></div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Grew a little fernleaf, green and slender,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Veining delicate and fibres tender,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Waving when the wind crept down so low;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Rushes tall, and moss, and grass grew round it;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Playful sunbeams darted in and found it,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Drops of dew stole in by night and crowned it;</div> <div class="verse">But no foot of man e'er came that way,</div> <div class="verse">Earth was young and keeping holiday.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Monster fishes swam the silent main&mdash;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Giant forests shook their stately branches,</div> <div class="verse">Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain;</div> <div class="verse">Nature reveled in wild mysteries,</div> <div class="verse">But the little fern was not of these,</div> <div class="verse">Did not number with the hills and trees,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Only grew and waved its sweet wild way&mdash;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">No one came to note it day by day.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Earth one day put on a frolic mood,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Moved the hills and changed the mighty motion</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean,</div> <div class="verse">Heaved the rocks, and shook the haughty wood,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Crushed the little fern in soft moist clay,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Covered it and hid it safe away.</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Oh, the long, long centuries since that day!</div> <div class="verse">Oh, the agony, Oh, life's bitter cost</div> <div class="verse">Since that useless little fern was lost!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Useless? Dost? There came a thoughtful man</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Searching Nature's secrets far and deep;</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">From a fissure in a rocky steep</div> <div class="verse">He withdrew a stone, o'er which there ran</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">Veining, leafage, fibres, clear and fine,</div> <div class="verse indent-1_5">And the fern's life lay in every line.</div> <div class="verse">So, methinks, God hides some souls away,</div> <div class="verse">Sweetly to surprise us some sweet day.</div> <div class="verse ar">&mdash;<span class="sc">Anon.</span></div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</SPAN></span></p> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />