The Wishing Bridge

Among the legends sung or said     Along our rocky shore,     The Wishing Bridge of Marblehead     May well be sung once more.     An hundred years ago (so ran     The old-time story) all     Good wishes said above its span     Would, soon or late, befall.     If pure and earnest, never failed     The prayers of man or maid     For him who on the deep sea sailed,     For her at home who stayed.     Once thither came two girls from school,     And wished in childish glee     And one would be a queen and rule,     And one the world would see.     Time passed; with change of hopes and fears,     And in the self-same place,     Two women, gray with middle years,     Stood, wondering, face to face.     With wakened memories, as they met,     They queried what had been     "A poor man's wife am I, and yet,"     Said one, "I am a queen.     "My realm a little homestead is,     Where, lacking crown and throne,     I rule by loving services     And patient toil alone."     The other said: "The great world lies     Beyond me as it lay;     O'er love's and duty's boundaries     My feet may never stray.     "I see but common sights of home,     Its common sounds I hear,     My widowed mother's sick-bed room     Sufficeth for my sphere.     "I read to her some pleasant page     Of travel far and wide,     And in a dreamy pilgrimage     We wander side by side.     "And when, at last, she falls asleep,     My book becomes to me     A magic glass: my watch I keep,     But all the world I see.     "A farm-wife queen your place you fill,     While fancy's privilege     Is mine to walk the earth at will,     Thanks to the Wishing Bridge."     "Nay, leave the legend for the truth,"     The other cried, "and say     God gives the wishes of our youth,     But in His own best way!