And now to fail thus early in the day! His head seemed to spin and his brain reel; he bowed himself on the seat again, but Bob's head went down promptly, and he whispered,-- "Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep!" How often Tip had thought such things as these so very funny that he could not possibly help laughing; how silly and meaningless--yes, and cruel--did they seem to him now! Oh, Satan was struggling for Tip to-day: he was reaping the fruits of long weeks spent in evil company and folly.
He looked over to the back seats, where sat Howard Minturn and Ellis Holbrook, hard at work on their algebra lesson, nobody thinking of such a thing as disturbing them; and, as he looked, sighed heavily.

If he had only gained such a place as they had in the school, how easily he could work to-day.

They were very little older than he, yet here he was trying to do an example in addition, doing it over four times before it was right,--and they were at the head of the class in algebra.

If he could only jump to where they were, and go on with them! And the hopelessness of this thought made his spelling-lesson seem harder; so it was no wonder, when the class formed, and he took his old place at the foot, and he stayed there, and spelled believe _ei_ after all; nobody was surprised, but nobody knew how very, _very_ hard he had tried.
The long day, crowded full of trouble and temptation to poor Tip, wore away.

At recess he wandered off by himself, trying hard to get back some of the strong, firm hopes of the morning.
One more sharp trial was in store for him.