If a friend lets you doubt about -
does his word weigh a lot or not,
if you can’t see right from the start
what’s the game on his part -

find a mountain to try that guy,
do not leave him alone, press on
on the same rope along the slope -
to the same lofty top.

If he felt like each nerve strand rent,
every time he slipped out he’d shout,
on the glacier’s track every crack
made him want to turn back -

then just send him away, don’t wait,
he is not of your kind, so mind -
up there one doesn’t walk with such folk,
that’s the end of the talk.

But if under the strain and pain,
gaunt and grim, he did not give in,
as he saw on the wall you fall,
he cussed, yelled but he held;

if he stood next to you, oh boy,
on the summit half-drunk with joy -
then from now on in every esteem
place reliance in him.