Thank you all the same." And out he went; yet all the way up and down the streets his thoughts were busy over what he had just heard.

It was _time_, certainly, as poor as they were, that he began to work; his mother's sewing supported the family now, and hard and late into the nights she had to work to keep them from hunger.

Tip had thought of this question before, but had always comforted himself with the thought that work was not by any means an easy thing to get in the village; the odd jobs which he could find, out of school hours, being really the only things he could get to do.
But no such comfort came to him to-day: here was a chance, and a splendid one, for getting steady work, and by and by good wages probably; why wasn't he glad?
Oh, ever since he gave himself to Christ, there had been in his heart a longing to get an education, and not only that, but to become a minister.
Very small, faint hopes he had, and even those were frightened sometimes at their own boldness; but every day the desire grew stronger, and it did not seem as though he could possibly give up school now.

It was out of the question, he told himself, just as he was beginning to enjoy his books so much, and was doing well.

Mr.Burrows would be disappointed in him; he had encouraged him to study.