"But he hasn't had his dinner," said both women in the same breath.
"Just what I told the lad; but true lovers of horses don't think of meals for themselves when the creatures need their attention. It is a test few can stand, I can tell you, Sister Martin," said Mr. Consett, with a quiet chuckle, as he took his seat at the table, and began helping himself to the ham and chicken.
"But the boy must be hungry, my dear," said his wife, in some concern for her friend's feelings about the lad.
"I daresay he is, I have no doubt he is, but a lad who has the making of a man in him don't let his hunger or any other appetite master him when duty calls him the other way. I wouldn't have left him with Meg's foal, the most valuable creature on the whole place, if I couldn't have trusted him. It was his own wish to be left to watch her for a while. I told him dinner would be waiting, but he evidently thought less of your dinner than he did of the creature who was suffering. I don't think he thought much of me or my opinion; it was the foal he was concerned with. As to his own stomach, that was clean forgotten for the time."
"Then you think the lad will do, sir?" said Sister Martin.
"I haven't the smallest doubt of it. A lad who can forget himself and his own hunger, to relieve the wants and sufferings of a dumb creature, won't go very far from God, whatever he may call himself. He told me as we went along that he couldn't decide to be a Methodist all at once; and I must say the news didn't please me much at first, though I liked the lad for telling me. But when we got to the field, and saw this foal was bad, everything else was forgotten but that our help was needed, if anything was to be done for her.
"I'm going back as soon as I have finished, and you must have something ready for the boy when he comes in; for of course he is hungry, and must eat, though I was glad to see he did not mean to let hunger be his master.
"That is the secret, Sister Martin, of success in everything, I don't care what it is; if the man or boy is master of himself, instead of allowing his appetites and passions to master him, he may be trusted to choose for himself in most things. And so I have made up my mind to let this lad take his choice as to whether he joins our society or not. If he don't choose to call himself by the name of Methodist, why, I shall be sorry, I confess, but there it will end, for he is a God-fearing lad, I can see, and what I have told you about being master of himself settles it, so far as I am concerned."
"Then you will take him, Mr. Consett?" said Sister Martin, in a relieved tone.