As I stood amid the bracken, as I stood amid the fern,
I could hear the merry bicker, the blithe bicker of the burn.
Bees were hummin’, softly hummin’;
“She‘ s a comin’! She‘ s a comin’!”
With a little spurt of laughter called the brook at every turn.
“Watch her! watch her! watch her! watch her!” cried a curlew overhead;
An’ I knew that it was Norah by the trippin’ of her tread;
An’ a gentle wind a croonin’
In the silence of the noonin’ —
“Dare you kiss her? dare you kiss her?” were the saucy words it said.
Sure, it stirred the heart within me, did that tauntin’ of the wind,
For the selfsame heart I mentioned was a sort of darin’ kind;
When she came within my reachin’
There was no pause for beseechin’,
For I kissed her, an’ I kissed her, an’, faith, Norah did n't mind!