And now, to his great delight, he was trusted to take charge of a
horse; he took such care of it, and kept it so clean and neat, that before
long another horse was given to his charge, and he had also to look after
the cow, so that he must have felt that he was quite an important person.
You will be interested about his drawings when I tell you that he worked
so hard at them, because he had a wonderful plan in his head. You must
not think that he had forgotten his old home; though he was so happy in
England, his great longing was to see his dear parents once more. He did
not wish to go back to Ireland, but he thought if he could only earn enough
by his beautiful drawings to buy a little cottage and a cow, he would send
for them to come and live near him, and then his joy would be complete.
He used to pray a great deal about this, kneeling at the window, that "God
might look through the stars into his heart," and see how very much he
loved the Lord Jesus Christ; and he used to say that he knew God had
"looked at" his prayer, just as you might say, "God has _heard_ me praying
to Him."
Five years passed in that quiet home, and then the cough, which had
troubled him for some time, grew much worse, and he seemed to understand,
without being told, that he was soon going to die.
When he came down one morning, looking sadly pale and tired, his mistress
asked, "Have you slept, Jack?"
"No," he said, smiling sweetly.
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