If a friend should seem in the end
Neither friend nor foe but so-so,
If it’s hard to make out beyond doubt
What the guy’s all about -

Drag him right to the mountain heighrs,
And do not let him from your sight,
When you’re tethered together you can
Bet you’ll know your man -

If he saw the peaks soar without awe,
When his nerve seemed to fail, turned tail,
Felt the ice underfoot go crack,
Shrieked and stumbled back!

Then a stranger strides by your side,
Talk’s no use, you just turn him loose,
Not for him were the peaks designed,
Don’t sing here of his kind.

But if he kept from crying, not one whine,
If he sulked, grew withdrawn, but went on
And when from the cliff you fell,
Then he groaned, but he heid!

If you both marched to fight the heights,
Stood drunk there on the summit’s ais,
Then depend on your friend for help,
As you would on yourself.