There was a mighty river that I knew
In time long-by; it made me hold my breath
To watch its wondrous ways — so wide it grew,
So plain the darker eddies spoke of death,
The lads that dared to swim it were so few!

Man grown, to-day I muse the stream beside,
And smile, remembering — for 'tis a span
And nothing more to reach across its tide,
While in the blackest pools your eyes may scan
The bottom, where the minnows hunt and hide.

Mayhap the rivers will not shrink to streams,
In that dim land that lies beyond our dreams.