“Yes.”

It was quickly appropriated.  Hector looked with some curiosity at the boy who did so much justice to boarding-school fare.  He was a thin, pale boy, who looked as if he had been growing rapidly, as, indeed, he had.  This, perhaps, it was that stimulated his appetite.  Afterward Hector asked him if he really liked his meals.

“No,” he said; “they’re nasty.”

He was an English boy, which accounted for his use of the last word.

“You eat them as if you liked them,” remarked Hector.

“I’m so hungry,” apologized Colburn, mournfully.  “I’m always hungry.  I eat to fill up, not ’cause I like it.  I could eat anything.”

“I believe he could,” said Wilkins, who overheard this conversation.  “Could you eat fried cat, now?” he asked.

“Yes,” answered Colburn, honestly.  “There would be something hearty and filling about fried cat.  I ain’t half full now.”

It was just after dinner.

Hector might have said the same thing at the end of his first dinner.  There was, indeed, another course.  It consisted of some pale, flabby apple pie, about half baked.  The slices given were about half the size of those that are ordinarily supplied at private tables and restaurants.  Hector managed to eat the apple, but the crust he was obliged to leave.  He noticed, however, that his fellow pupils were not so fastidious.

When the last fragment of pie had disappeared, Mr. Smith again rang the hand bell.

“Boys,” he said, “we have now satisfied our appetites.”

“I haven’t,” thought Hector.

“We have once more experienced the bountiful goodness of Providence in supplying our material wants.  As we sit down to our plain but wholesome diet, I wonder how many of us are sensible of our good fortune.  I wonder how many of us think of the thousands of poor children, scattered about the world, who know not where to get their daily bread.  You have been refreshed, and have reinforced your strength; you will soon be ready to resume your studies, and thus, also, take in a supply of mental food, for, as you are all aware, or ought to be aware, the mind needs to be fed as well as the body.  There will first be a short season for games and out-of-door amusements.  Mr. Crabb, will you accompany the boys to the playground and superintend their sports?”

Mr. Crabb also had participated in the rich feast, and rose with the same unsatisfied but resigned look which characterized the rest.  He led the way to the playground, and the boys trooped after him.

“Really, Wilkins,” said Hector, in a low tone, “this is getting serious.  Isn’t there any place outside where one can get something to eat?”

“There’s a baker’s half a mile away, but you can’t go till after afternoon session.”

“Show me the way there, then, and I’ll buy something for both of us.”

“All right,” said Wilkins, brightening up.