"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."
Kitty stood still in her astonishment, and watched him while he took out
the round green sticks that she had put in, laid in bits of dry paper and
bits of sticks,--laid them in such a careless, uneven way, that it seemed
to her they would never burn in the world; only he speedily proved that
they would, by setting fire to the whole, and they crackled and snapped
in a most determined manner, and finally roared outright.
Certainly Kitty had never been so much astonished in her life. First,
because that rubbish in the stove had been made to become such a positive
fire; secondly, that Tip had actually set to work without being coaxed or
scolded, and made a fire!
There was a queer, new feeling about it all to Tip himself; for, strange
as it may seem, so entirely selfish had been this boy's life, that this
was actually the first time he had ever, of his own free will, done
anything to help the family at home. His spirits rose with the effort.
"Come, Kitty," he said briskly, "here's your fire. Now, let's fly
round and get father and mother some breakfast. Say, do you know how
to make toast?"
"It's likely I do," Kitty answered shortly. "If you had roasted your face
and burnt your fingers as often as I have, making it for father, I guess
you would know how."
"Well, now, just suppose we make two slices,--one for mother, and one
for father,--and two cups of tea. My! you and I will be jolly
housekeepers, Kitty."
"Humph!" said Kitty contemptuously.
You see she wasn't in the least used to being good-natured, and it took a
great deal of coaxing to make her give other than short, sharp answers to
all that was said. But, for all that, she went to work, after Tip had
poured some water in the dingy little tea-kettle and set it over the
fire, cutting the two slices of bread, and getting them ready to toast
when there should be any coals.
Tip, meantime, hunted among the confusion, of all sorts of things in the
cupboard, for two clean plates and cups.
"You're taken with an awful clean fit, seems to me," Kitty said, as she
stood watching him while he hunted for a cloth, then carefully wiped off
the plates.
"Yes," answered Tip good-naturedly; "I'm going to try it for a spell,
and find out how things look after they are washed."
Altogether it was a queer morning to both of them; and each felt a touch
of triumph when at last the toast lay brown and nice, a slice on each
plate, and the hot tea, poured into the cups, smelled fresh and fragrant.
The two children went softly to the bedroom door in time to hear their
father say,--
"What makes you try to get up, if your head is so bad?"
"Oh, what makes me! What else is there for _me_ to do? The young ones are
both up, and if I find the roof left on the house I'll be thankful. I
never knew them to stay together five minutes without having a battle."
At almost any other time in her life these words would have made Kitty
very angry; but this morning she was intent on not letting her tea spill
over on the toast, and so paid very little attention to them.
Tip marched boldly in with his dish, Kitty following.
"Lie still, mother, till you get some of our tea and toast, and I reckon
it will cure you."
Mrs. Lewis raised herself on one elbow, saw the beautiful brown slices,
caught a whiff of the fragrant tea, then asked wonderingly,--
"Who's here?"
"Kitty and me," Tip made answer, proudly and promptly.
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.