The Bridge Builder

An old man, going on a lonely way,

Came at evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide;

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,

"You are wasting your strength with

building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You've crossed the chasm deep and wide,

Why build a bridge to span the tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head -----

"Good friend, in the path I have come"

he said,

"There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way,

This chasm that has been naught to me,

To the fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."