Covered it, and hid it safe away.

Oh, the long, long centuries since that day!

Oh, the agony! Oh, life’s bitter cost,

Since that useless little fern was lost!

Useless? Lost? There came a thoughtful man,

Searching Nature’s secrets, far and deep;

From a fissure in a rocky steep

He withdrew a stone, o’er which there ran

Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,

Veinings, leafage, fibers clear and fine!