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MET a friend of mine the other day

Upon the platform of a West End car;

We shook hands, and my friend began to say

Quickly, as if he were not going far,

"Last summer something rather in your way

Came to my knowledge. I was asked to see

A young man who had come to talk with me

Because I was a clergyman; and he

Told me at once that he had served his time

In the state-prison for a heinous crime,

And was just out. He had no friends, or none

To speak of; and he seemed far gone