An old man, going a lone highway, came at 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 strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day; you never again must pass this way; You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide - why build you the bridge at the 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 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 the bridge for him.”

-Will Allen Dromgoole