you have been my friend
he said, that in itself is
a tremendous thing
“Why did you do all this for me?” he asked. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.”
“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.
I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”
From Charlotte’s Web by Elwyn Brooks White, Harper and Row, New York, 1952.
As Mr. White put it, “No pig ever had truer friends, and he realized that friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world.”
The next to last line of Charlotte’s Web reads:
It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend.
No Haiku For You 