Stranded by Annie Fellows Johnston — Read

WE found a wreck cast up on the shore, / Battered and bruised, and scarred and rent, / And I spoke aloud, "Here was worthless work, / And a barque unfit to the sea was sent."

But he said, my friend, in his gentle mood, / "Nay, none may say but the barque was good, / For none can tell of the seas it sailed, / Of the waves it braved and the storms withstood."

Then we spoke no more, but I mutely mused / And thought, oh, heart and oh, life of man / That we find wrecked! we may never know / How brave you were when your course began.