A Friend Or Two

A Friend Or Two
by Wilbur D. Nesbit

There's all of pleasure and all of peace
In a friend or two;
And all your troubles may find release
Within a friend or two;
It's in the grip of the sleeping hand
On native soil or in alien land,
But the world is made-do you understand-
Of a friend or two.

A song to sing, and a crust to share
With a friend or two;
A smile to give and a grief to bear
With a friend or two;
A road to walk and a goal to win,
An inglenook to find comfort in,
The gladdest hours that we know begin
With a friend or two.

A little laughter; perhaps some tears
With a friend or two;
The days, the weeks, and the months and years
With a friend or two;
A vale to cross and a hill to climb,
A mock at age and a jeer at time-
The prose of life takes the lilt of rhyme
With a friend or two.

The brother-soul and the brother-heart
Of a friend or two
Make us drift on from the crowd apart,
With a friend or two;
For come days happy or come days sad
We count no hours but the ones made glad
By the hale good times we have ever had
With a friend or two.

Then brim the goblet and quaff the toast
To a friend or two,
For glad the man who can always boast
of a friend or two;
But fairest sight is a friendly face,
The blithest tread is a friendly pace
And heaven will be a better place
For a friend or two.