the last few years, that sentiment was
strong enough to sink the traffic five miles deep in the ocean of
righteous indignation. I tell you, father, sentiment is the prime
essential of the whole thing; but as long as it floats around
everywhere, like moonshine, what is it good for? We need concentration
and crystallization now. In other words, I believe in a party of
embodied sentiment."

CHAPTER IV.

ASLEEP IN JESUS.

Gilbert Allison, of the firm of Allison, Russell & Joy, wholesale and
retail liquor dealers, walking briskly along a sideway that led toward
one of the great thoroughfares of the city, halted a second before
crossing the street. As he stopped a voice reached his ear. Hearing the
voice he took a more careful glance at the surroundings and found
himself standing in front of a plain little wooden structure that he
learned, from a sign upon one corner, was some sort of an orthodox
chapel. Through the narrow, open doorway the voice floated:

Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep--
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes.
Asleep in Jesus! Oh, how sweet
To be for such a slumber meet!
With holy confidence to sing
That death has lost its venom sting.

Both words and tune were unfamiliar to him. Was it the song itself, sung
to the sweetly pathetic tune of "Rest," was it the strangely beautiful
and solemn voice of the singer, or was it common curiosity to see the
owner of the unusual voice that proved the attraction prompting him to
step into the vestibule? Unseen he watched as the song went on:

Asleep in Jesus! peaceful rest,
Whose waking is supremely blest.
No fear nor foe shall dim the hour
That manifests the Savior's power.
Asleep in Jesus! Oh, for me
May such a blissful refuge be!
Securely shall my ashes lie
And wait the summons from the sky.

The sweet voice of the singer died away, and the stillness was broken
only by low sobbing. Then the minister arose.

Gilbert Allison had seen enough. The plain, dark coffin just before the
altar railing told him that another human soul had left its earthly body
and had gone beyond.

He was not interested in this. His mind dwelt on the singer. She was
rather small, a well-formed and graceful appearing young woman of
perhaps twenty-two or twenty-four. She wore a plain dark dress, and a
round hat rested on the masse