Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/142

124 to impress on him the idea that he could and must be a man, in spite of it.

she thought to herself, as she listened to Fred’s convulsive sobs.

“My dear boy,” she said very gently but firmly, as she put her arm around him and drew  him over against her shoulder, “I want you to  try to stop crying and listen to me. You say you can’t ever do anything more, like the rest  of the boys, but you have one chance that Rob  and the others have not. One thing you can be now, while their turn hasn’t come yet.”

“What is it?” asked Fred wonderingly.

“A hero, dear. A brave boy, who will grow to be a braver man. We know too well that you can never see again, but because you can’t  see, that is no reason you should be a coward  and want to die. We aren’t put here, Fred, just to have a good time; but instead, we are  to make just as much of ourselves as we can,  with what is given us. Because you can’t go to college, or play baseball, or skate, you need not think there is nothing you can do. Which