r
heart be troubled." Then he fell asleep in peace.

He was wakened by his old master's voice: "Christie," said Treffy;
"Christie, boy!"

"Yes, Master Treffy," said Christie, jumping up hastily.

"Where's the old organ, Christie?" asked Treffy.

"She's here, Master Treffy," said Christie, "all right and safe."

"Turn her, Christie," said Treffy, "play 'Home, sweet Home.'"

"It's the middle of the night, Master Treffy," said Christie; "folks
will wonder what's the matter."

But Treffy made no answer, and Christie crept to his side with a light,
and looked at his face. It was very altered and strange. Treffy's eyes
were shut, and there was that in his face which Christie had never seen
there before. He did not know what to do. He walked to the window and
looked out. The sky was quite dark, but one bright star was shining
through it and looking in at the attic window. "Let not your heart be
troubled," it seemed to say to him. And Christie answered aloud, "Lord,
dear Lord, help me."

As he turned from the window, Treffy spoke again, and Christie caught
the words, "Play, Christie, boy, play."

He hesitated no longer. Taking the organ from its place, he turned the
handle, and slowly and sadly the notes of "Home, sweet Home," were
sounded forth in the dark attic. The old man opened his eyes as Christie
played, and, when the tune was over, he called the boy to him; and,
drawing him down very close to him, he whispered,--

"Christie, boy, the gates are opening now. I'm going in. Play again,
Christie, boy."

It was hard work playing the three other tunes, they seemed so out of
place in the room of death.

But Treffy did not seem to hear them. He was murmuring softly to himself
the words of the prayer, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow;
whiter than snow, whiter than snow."

And, as Christie was playing "Home, sweet Home," for the second time,
old Treffy's weary feet passed within the gates. He was at home at last,
in "Home, sweet Home."

And little Christie was left outside.

CHAPTER X.

"NO PLACE LIKE HOME."

The next morning, some of the lodgers in the great room below remembered
having heard sounds in the stillness of the night, which had awakened
them from their dreams and disturbed their slumbers. Some maintained it
was only the wind howling in the chimney, but others felt sure it was
music, and said that the old man in the attic must have been amusing
himself with the organ at midnight.