And now Nathan, the offspring of a God-fearing male and an unholy female, was upsetting all his father’s unassailable calculations and becoming known throughout our part of New England as a celebrity. Just what should Johnathan do about it? Not being in a position to do much of anything about it, the father concluded it best to pursue a policy of watchful waiting. So matters drifted—with Nathan performing rather indefinite tasks in the tannery, the vague nature of which bothered his father not a little bit, but which nevertheless brought in six dollars a week—until the disturbing young coot “up and wrote ‘The Pagans.’” III To speak truthfully, our prune-and-prism community received a shock. Sam Hod, proprietor of the _Telegraph_, undoubtedly wanted to administer a shock. Anyhow, he not only printed what the precocious rhymster had composed but called attention to its moral excellence in his editorial column that night. “THE PAGANS “We bought two slaves on the Block of Life, Out-crying the bidders all; Two slaves as rare as the maids of Punt, White-limbed as the girls of Gaul. The Pagan bought for the right to own, With gold that he could not miss While I bought mine for the right to love And swapped for her flesh a kiss. “We pushed our slaves from the auction hall And drove them along Life’s street; We jested over their bodies pink, The pad of their naked feet. Ahmed chained his to a black floor ring As butt for his brutal fun, While I chained mine to a kitchen range And work that was never done. “The Pagan’s slave was a high-strung lass And fought with a courage rare; But broke at last ‘neath her master’s whip And pain from her tortured hair. Now my slave, too, was a high-strung lass, And so—for my right was clear—I broke her back with a thankless drudge And a baby every year. “The Pagan swore that his slave should die By slash ‘cross her milk-white throat, Her body sewed in a sack by night Be dropped in his harem moat. I likewise ordered my slave should die But I did the thing with art: I ground my spleen to a rapier point And stabbed till I found her heart.