the whole of it. I would like to be somebody, as true as I live, I would.
I'd like to have the people say, 'There goes Tip Lewis; he's the best boy
in town.' Bless me! that would be funny; I don't believe they could ever
say it; they are so used to calling me the worst, they couldn't help it.
What if I should reform? I declare I don't know but I will."

And Tip rolled over on his back, and looked up into the blue, cloudless
sky; lying there, he certainly had some of the most sober thoughts,
perhaps the only really sober ones he had ever known in his life. And
when at last he slowly picked himself up, turned his back upon the
darting fishes, and walked towards the school-house, he had in his mind
some vague notion that perhaps he would be different from that time
forth. Just what he was going to do, or how to commence doing it, he
didn't know; but the story, to which he had seemed not to listen at all,
had crept into his heart, had commenced its work; very dimly was it
working, very blindly he might grope for a while, but the seed sown had
taken root.




CHAPTER III.

"Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did
it unto Me."


Around the corner, and far up the street from where Tip Lewis lived,
there stood a large white house; not another house in the village was so
beautiful as this. Many a time had Tip walked slowly by the place, and