alluring meals

...
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas attributes this story to his preacher father's experiences in Washington State:

"In 1904, when we lived in Cleveland (Washington State), it was a lively
village of a hundred or more inhabitants. There was a church and school, a
post office, stores, and several boarding houses. A half-dozen miles to
the south was a small settlement appropriately called Dot. Three miles to
the east was the town of Bickleton. Father had the pastorate at each of
these three places, riding to preach in each at least once a week, and
preaching in two churches every Sunday, a physically arduous routine.

Bickleton is still a small, thriving trading center for farmers. Dot today
is hardly identifiable. In those days it had only a church, a simple
one-room building where father held a Thursday night service for people
from the outlying ranches. His first service at Dot was disappointing, as
only one man appeared. Father waited awhile but no one else showed up, so
he opened the service with a prayer and a hymn. Then addressing the lone
man in the audience, he said, " Since there are only two of us present, I
wonder if I should continue the service or wait another week until word of
my arrival gets around." The man arose and said, "Reverend Douglas, I'm
not a preacher, only a cowboy. All I know is this: if I had forty horses
and a load of hay and went out to feed them and could find only one horse,
I don't think I'd let that one horse go hungry."

Father got the message and settled down to an hour-long sermon. When the
service was over and he shook hands with the lone member of the audience at
the front door, he asked, "How did it go?" The man replied, "Reverend
Douglas, as I said, I'm only a cowboy. But if I had forty horses to feed
and went out looking for them with a load of hay and found only one horse,
I don't think I'd give the whole load to that one horse."

from "Go East, Young Man"
by William O. Douglas