Knowing Howard pretty well, he said, when they were seated at breakfast that morning,-- "I've just been reading about a real hero." Howard longed to be a hero; he looked up eagerly.
"Who was he, father?
What did he do ?" "He was a rich young man, and he had the courage to take for his friend a poor fellow who hadn't two cents to his name.

To pay him, the time came when he was proud to be noticed by the great man who was once so low." This thought was still in Howard's mind when he walked with Ellis to school.

So, when Ellis said, "There goes Tip Lewis; father thinks we boys ought to notice him; he is trying real hard now-a-days to behave himself, you know," it was easy for Howard to mingle Tip in with his thoughts.
"Ellis," he said, after a moment's silence, "suppose I invite him to come to our house to-night?
He's a splendid good fellow to have a game; never gets mad, you know." "S'pose he'd come ?" asked Ellis.
"Yes, of course; jump at the chance.

_I'll do it_.

Our boys will think it odd, I suppose; but I guess I have courage enough to do as I please." And Howard drew himself up proudly, and thought of his father's hero.
So this was why Tip was invited to the birthday gathering at the grand house on the hill.
Mrs.Lewis sewed, that afternoon, on his jacket, mending it up more neatly than ever before.