"I know him by sight," admitted Ray, "though I never spoke with him that I remember of."
"Well," continued Mr. Woodhull, "he came up after me this morning—had an awful sick cow, and wanted me to doctor it; that's the reason I wasn't at church;—and I find he wants to get a young fellow he can trust to come on his place this summer. He's going into the stock business, and will be away a good deal. He wants some one to look out for the stock, and around the house; to be company and protection for Mrs. Woodhull when he's away. There are two other men to attend to the farmwork, so the place won't be so awful hard for the one who gets it. I kinder recommended you. You see, George and his wife are earnest Christians, members of a little church down near their place. Then he has lots of books, and Mrs. Woodhull was a school teacher before she was married, and teaches her own children; 'twill be a capital place for you to brush up your studies, if you wanted to do such a thing. But I tell you: he's going to be over to my house to-morrow night. Come over about dusk, or soon as you can after supper, and we'll talk it over."
So early the next evening Ray found himself face to face with Mr. George Woodhull, and listened with glowing cheeks to that gentleman's proposition.
"Your work will be entirely about the house and barns," he said, "and there will be nothing you cannot easily learn to do. What I want is to have some one at the farm when I am away, who I know is thoroughly trustworthy, and who will see that everything is kept up in proper order. You may go to just as many meetings as you please, as long as your duties are not neglected; and we'll give you every opportunity to read and study that is possible. I'm willing to pay you well for the work, say twenty-five dollars a month, for eight months, to begin as soon as you can get away from the mill. Are you willing to come?"
Willing? Wasn't it for just such an opportunity that he had for weeks been praying? And with a thankful heart he accepted the position, to begin two weeks from that very day, as he could not get away from the mill before that. But what amazed him most was the compensation offered; and it was not until years after that he knew that Mr. Jacob Woodhull had added an extra five dollars to each month's pay, it being one of the ways that the eccentric old man had taken to see "that that boy lost nothing by settling up his old scores with him"; and there were others to follow.
After the lad had gone, the two men spent some time planning for his farther advancement just as fast as he should prove worthy of it, and they did it with a heartiness that showed a deep interest in him already awakened in their hearts. Had either one of them been asked to account for this interest, he would have softly repeated the Master's words: "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."
It was the Master's work, and done for the Master's sake.
CHAPTER VI.
LONG POINT FARM.
Owensett Bay, at the head of which the town of Afton stood, was a beautiful sheet of water. It was six or eight miles long, and three to four miles broad, and for the most part comparatively regular in the curvature of its shores. On the east side, however, there was one marked exception, as about five miles down the bay a point of land, nearly a mile long, and half as broad, jutted directly out into the water. This point of land was owned by Mr. George Woodhull, and formed what was known in the neighborhood as "Long Point Farm."