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The Bridge Builder

by Will Allen Dromgoole

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 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,
Yon 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 have come," he said,
"There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as 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!"

Did You Know?

In 1857, three years before Will Allen Dromgoole was born, a bridge carpenter in America could expect to earn between sixty and sixty-five cents per day building bridges. As an added bonus, three square meals a day were also included.[1]


References

  1. Sloane, Eric. American Barns & Covered Bridges. 1st ed., Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1954, p.86

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