Such an odd letter as it was! He was glad it was his business to get the mail, and that none of the other clerks had seen this, with his name written at the very top of the envelope, and written "Tip" at that.

How oddly it looked, and how queerly it sounded when he said it over! It was so long since he heard that name, he never wanted to again.

He was glad that Ray Minturn had never called him Tip, nor heard him called so.
Who could it be from?
Nobody wrote to him except Kitty, and once in a long while his mother; but this was no home-letter.

At last he broke the seal, and read:-- "DEER TIP,--Mother's dead, I feel bad, you kno that, so what's the use?
I've got to go to work.

I like you better than any of the other felows, always did.