Read "The Price He Paid" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I SAID I would have my fling, / And do what a young man may; / And I didn't believe a thing / That the parsons have to say. / I didn't believe in a God / That gives us blood like fire, / Then flings us into hell because / We answer the call of desire.
And I said: ‘Religion is rot, / And the laws of the world are nil; / For the bad man is he who is caught / And cannot foot his bill. / And there is no place called hell; / And heaven is only a truth / When a man has his way with a maid, / In the fresh keen hour of youth.