For Others...

An old man going a lone highway
Came at the evening, cold and gray
To chasm vast and deep and wide,
The old man crossed 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 your 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 this bridge at evening tide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head,
" Good friend, in the path I came" ,he said,
There followeth after me today,
A youth whose fell must pass this way,
This chasm that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be,
He too must cross in the twilight dim-
" Good friend I am building this bridge for him."

--by Anonymous