When I was much younger I had the usual youthful arrogance about death. Songs like this from another age amused me, and I and my college friends competed to see who could come up with this most morbid one. This one made the top ten, probably because of its last three verses if you manage to plow through to them:

LITTLE ALICE
(In SONGS FOR THE LITTLE ONES AT HOME, published by the American Tract Society in the 1850's)

Dear little Alice has gone to rest,
Where never a sin shall stain her breast;
No trouble disturb her, no fear annoy,
No cloud overshadow her innocent joy.
She lived on this earth but a little while;
She died before we had seen her smile,
But she was our sister, and is so still;
Sweet Alice, we call her, and always will.

We think we are glad she's gone away,
Where her life will be all one pleasant day;
Where an unkind word she'll ne'er receive,
Nor speak one herself, our kind hearts to grieve.
For if she were here now, she would often cry,
And then she'd take sick, suffer and die;
But now death is over, and all the while
Her sweet little face may wear a smile.

For she'll never know, nor do what is wrong,
The angels in heaven will teach her their song;
Dear sister, we wish we could be there too –
Oh, when shall we come and join with you?

I forget the name of the gospel tune we set this one to; maybe it was "The Great Speckled Bird." Songs like this just make me sad today.

Charley Noble