"MACDOUGALL" MacDougall was a friend of mine - a  boyhood pal, you see. We went through school together; he lived next door to me. We shared the Great Adventures that only boys can know. Yes, we grew up together, so many years ago. MacDougall left the army a mixed-up sort of  guy; The fighting and the killing had been the reasons why. He needed time to think a bit, to settle down once more, To get his feet on solid ground, the way they were before. But then one night he found himself, with pistol in  his hand, Participating in a job that someone else had planned. His foggy  mind refused to see that wrong could not be right. A bullet burned through  human flesh and changed his life that night. The judge pronounced the "twenty years" with vengeance on his tongue. MacDougall listened solemnly; he was so  very young. He vowed that he would serve his term and start his life anew. The twenty years would not be long; his time would soon be through. I'd go to see MacDougall when our schedules would agree. His  tears would flow with happiness when he'd catch sight of me. "I've learned my lesson now," he'd say. "The hours pass so slow. I'll never harm a fly again. Why can't they let me go?" The years began to change him then, as water wears the stone. The years passed by so slowly, and left him so alone. My friend  became an animal, with blank, unseeing stare. His family had left this world;  no longer could he care. Now, one day soon the prison gates will open as per  plan, And they'll disgorge a graying hulk - a broken, bitter man. His  twenty years have gone their way, those twenty years in hell. But twenty years weren't needed. Lord, a month had done as well.