Tip walked out of the school and down the road, holding his treasure closely. Such a queer, new feeling possessed him. Things were really to be different, then. The minister had talked with him, had shaken hands with him, and given him a Bible. And here he was walking quietly away from the school, all alone, instead of leading a troop of noisy boys, intent on mischief. "Oh, Tip Lewis," he said to himself, as he hugged his book, "I don't know but you will be somebody, after all; you mean to try with all your might, don't you? and you've got a lamp now!" CHAPTER VI. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with Mine eye." "Why," said Tip, as he sat on the foot of the bed, turning over the leaves of his Bible,--"why, that is the very thing I want. 'I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.' Yes, that's exactly it. I want to begin to-day, and do every single thing so different from what I ever did before, that nobody will know me. Now, if He'll help me, I can do it. I'll learn that verse." The verse was repeated many times over, for Tip was not used to study. While he was busy thus, the Spirit of God put another thought into his heart. "I must ask Christ to help me now," he said, with reverent face; and, kneeling down, he made known his wants in very simple words, and in that plain, direct way which God loves. Then he went down--stairs, prepared for whatever should befall him that day. Kitty was up, and rattling the kitchen stove. "Kitty, what's to pay?" Tip asked, as he appeared in the door. "What's to pay with you? How did you happen to get up?" Receiving no answer to this, she continued, "The old cat is to pay,--everywhere,--and always is! These nasty shavings are soaked through and through, and the wood is rotten,--and there isn't any wood anyway,--and I can't make this fire burn to save my life. Mother is sick in bed,--can't sit up at all. She told me to make a cup of tea for father, and things look as if it would get made some time next month." Kitty was only twelve years old, but, like most of those children who have been left to bring themselves up, and pick up wisdom and wickedness wherever they are to be found, she was wonderfully old in mind; and was so used to grumbling and snarling, that she could do it very rapidly. "Oh," said Tip to himself, drawing a long breath, "what a place for me to commence in!" Then he came bravely to Kitty's aid. "See here, Kitty, don't make such a rattling; you'll wake father. I can make this fire in a hurry. I have made one out of next to nothing, lots of times; you just put some water in the tea-kettle, and we'll have a cup of tea in a jiff."