A law unto himself, then, this lovable old soul,
Who treated men as humans, but couldn’t “Jordan Roll,”
A bent and crooked body, but straight and pure at heart,
Who loved the young and aged, whom tears could rend apart.
Now this is how it happened that poor old Tom was damned
By Puritanic gossips through length and breath of land.
“Drab” Jerry told the parson, who told his wife, you see;
His wife informed Ned Nosy of Tom’s catastrophe,
Ned was a devout deacon, a long, thin-visaged wight,
Who’d sneak away sub rosa to train around at night,