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Show : si. mm mm. I A LOST FRIEND. My friend he was; my friend from all the rest ; With childlike faith he oped to me his breast; No door was locked on altar, grave or grief : No weakness veiled, concealed no disbelief; disbe-lief; The hone, the sorrow and the' wrong were la re. And ah. the shadow only showed the fair! I cave him love for love: but deep within, I maenitied each frailty into sin: Each hill-topped foible in the sunset flowed. Obscurinir vales where rivered virtues flowed. Reproof became reproach, till common crew The cautious world at every fault T knew, He smiled upon the censorship and bore "With patient love and touch that wounded sore: Fnti! at length, so had my blindness crown. He knew 1 judged him by his fauts alone. Alone, of all men. I who knew him best. Refused the gold, to take the dross for test! Cold sfangers honored for the worth they saw; His friend forcot the diamond in the flaw. At last it came the day he stood apart When from my eyes he proudly veiled his heart : When carping judgment and uncertain word A stern resentment in his bosom stirred; When in his face 1 read what I had been. And with hj,s vision saw what he had seen. Too late! too late! Oh. could he then have known. When his love died, that mine had perfect crown: That when the veil was drawn, abased, chastised. The censor stood, the lost one truly prized. Too late we learn a man must hold his t'rieno1 Unjudjted. accepted, trusted to the end. John Boyle O'Reilly. |