98 
HARDY FERNS. 
ing the seriousness of the already serious^ and 
giving to the naturally timid a moral courage, 
unlike the courage of this world — it was the 
influence that a mind really in earnest (whether 
for good or evil) must ever have upon the minds 
of those around him. 
As the memory of those days comes back to me, 
a bright light seems to fall on the fragile Maiden- 
hair Fern; so graceful in form, so tender and 
delicate in growth. Hiding itself away from the 
glare of the sun, and the haunts of men ; in its 
own home — the home of Heaven's choice — how 
green and lovely it is ! adorning the rough crevices 
of the time-worn rock ; and in its sheltered nook, 
even in the de23th of winter, ringing out to Nature's 
God its little paean of praise, as a stray wind blows 
on the tiny pinnules. Transplanted, the deHcate 
fronds shiver in every breeze, and perish when the 
cold wind of heaven touches them. 
Adiantum capillus-Yeneris is another of my 
representative Ferns. 
Fragile and deHcate as the Fern was the young 
