Something very like a smile gathered on Mrs. Lewis's worn, fretful face.

"Well, now," she said, "if I ain't beat! It's the last thing on earth I
ever expected you to do."

What spell had come over Tip? Breakfast was a great success. After it was
over he found a great many things to do; the rusty old axe was hunted up,
and some hard knots made to become very respectable-looking sticks of
wood, which he piled in the wood-box. Kitty, under the influence of his
strange behaviour, washed the dishes, and even got out the broom and
swept a little.

Altogether, that was a day long to be remembered by Tip, a day in which
he began his life afresh. He made some mistakes; for he fancied, in his
ignorance, that the struggle was over,--that he had only to go forward
joyfully over a pleasant road.

He found out his mistake: he discovered that Satan had not by any means
given him up; that he must yet fight many hard, hard battles.




CHAPTER VII.

"Fear not, for I have redeemed thee."


"They must have had an earthquake down at Lewis's this morning," Howard