As the homeliest man we had in town.

He never had married—that old John Jones;

he’d grubbed on his little patch,

Supported his parents until they died, and then

he had lived “old bach”.

We had some suspicions we couldn’t prove:

for years had an unknown man

Distributed gifts to the poor in town on a sort

of a Santa Claus plan.

If a worthy old widow was needing wood—