Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/143

Rh is better, to be a great scholar and a strong, active man, or to bear bravely a sorrow like  yours, be cheerful in spite of it, and, in thinking how to make people around you a little  happier and better, forget your own loss? I’m not hard in saying this, Fred, but I am looking  years ahead, and telling you what will make  you the best and happiest man. Do you believe me?”

The boy’s gesture was answer enough.

“What would you think, Fred,” she went on, “of a soldier who, in his first fight, ran away because he feared he might be hurt? I know you would call him a coward, but isn’t that about what you did to-night? It would, perhaps, have hurt a little at first, but isn’t it braver to face the pain now, than to run away from it, and put it off till another time? And the next time it would be just as hard, and a little bit harder. The boys had come up here to see you, thinking you were all going to have a bright, pleasant time together once more, in a way, they were as much your company as mine; but you went off and left them, with never a thought of their disappointment, you