The Bridge

Unknown

An old man going a lone highway
Came at the 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 fears for him,
But then he turned when safe on the other side
And started a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting your time with building here,
You never again will pass this way,
Your journey will end with the closing day,
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide,
Why build then a bridge at eventide?"

The builder lifted his old, gray head,
"Good friend, in the way I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way;
This stream that has been as naught to me,
To the fair haired youth might a pitfall be;
He too, must cross in the twilight dim,
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."