on a frolic mood,
Heaved the rocks and changed the mighty motion
Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean;
Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood
Crushed the little fern in soft, moist clay,--
Covered it and hid it safe away.
O, the long, long centuries since that day!
O, the changes! O, 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,
And the fern's life lay in every line!
So, I think, God hides some souls away,
Sweetly to surprise us, the last day."

From the Museum the party went to the Bronx where they first took a long
walk through the Zoo. How Mary wished that she did not have on a pale
blue silk dress and high heeled shoes as she dragged her tired feet over
the gravel paths and stood watching Gunda, the elephant, "weaving" back
and forth on his chain, and the tigers and leopards keeping up their
restless pacing up and down their cages, and the monkeys, chattering
hideously and snatching through the bars at any shining object worn by
their visitors! It was only because she stepped back nimbly that she did
not lose a locket that attracted the attention of an ugly imitation of a
human being.

The herds of large animals pleased them all.

"How kind it is of the keepers to give these creatures companions and
the same sort of place to live in that they are accustomed to,"
commented Ethel Brown.

"Did you know that this is one of the largest herds of buffalo in the
United States?" asked Tom, who, with Della, had joined them at the
Museum. "Father says that when he was young there used to be plenty of
buffalo on the western plains. The horse-car drivers used to wear coats
of buffalo skin and every new England farmer had a buffalo robe. It was
the cheapest fur in use. Then the railroads went over the plains and
there was such a destruction of the big beasts that they were
practically exterminated. They are carefully preserved now."

"The prairie dogs always amuse me," said Mrs. Smith. "Look at that
fellow! Every other one is eating his dinner as fast as he can but this
one is digging with his front paws and kicking the earth away with his
hind paws with amazing indu