Of the bridge that never was crossed.
The adage is old and worn a bit,
But worthy of being embossed—
Never cross a bridge till you come to it—
The bridge that must be crossed.
(3300)
Nobody is made so uncomfortable by borrowing trouble as the borrower himself, altho, of course, everybody in the region is disturbed and vexed by the habit. There is an ancient Welsh legend which has always seemed to us a case in point. “There were two kings formerly in Britain,” the legend says, “named Nynniaw and Peibiaw. As these two ranged the fields one starlit night, ‘See,’ said Nynniaw (who at this point seems something of a poet), ‘what a beautiful and extensive field I possess.’ ‘Where is it?’ said Peibiaw. ‘The whole firmament,’ said Nynniaw, ‘far as vision can extend.’ ‘And dost thou see,’ said Peibiaw, ‘what countless herds and flocks of cattle and sheep I have depasturing thy field?’ ‘Where are they?’ said Nynniaw. ‘Why, the whole host of stars which thou seest,’ said Peibiaw, ‘and each of golden effulgence, with the moon for their shepherdess to superintend their wanderings.’ ‘They shall not graze in my pasture,’ said Nynniaw (who now appears to have been fitly named). ‘They shall,’ said Peibiaw. ‘They shall not,’ said one. ‘They shall,’ said the other, repeatedly, bandying contradiction, until at last it arose to wild contention between them, and from contention it came to furious war, until armies and subjects of both were nearly annihilated in the desolation.”—Harper’s Bazar.
(3301)
TROUBLE BRAVELY MET