An old man going a lone highway
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fears 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 you this bridge at eventide?"
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 which has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth might a pitfall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim
Good Friend, I am building the bridge for him."
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fears 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 you this bridge at eventide?"
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 which has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth might a pitfall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim
Good Friend, I am building the bridge for him."