"Aunt," said Walter, as he sat at her feet, where he had placed himself after resigning his laurels, "I am afraid you are a little hard to please--or, at any rate, that I haven't much chance of getting you to see any moral courage in my unworthy self." "Why not, dear boy?" she asked; "why should not you exhibit moral courage as well as any one else?" "Oh, I don't know exactly; but it's so hard to know precisely what moral courage is after all, there are so many things that it is not. Now, what do you say to `pluck,' auntie; is `pluck' the same as moral courage?" "That depends upon what you mean by `pluck,' Walter." "Oh! you must admire pluck. Every true-born Englishman and Englishwoman admires pluck." "That may be, my clear nephew. I believe I do admire pluck, as far as I understand what it is. But you must give me your idea of it, that I may be able to answer your question about its being the same as moral courage." "Well, dear aunt, it is a thoroughly English, or perhaps I ought to say British, thing, you know. It isn't mere brute courage. It will keep a man who has it going steadily on with what he has undertaken. There is a great deal of self-denial, and perseverance, and steady effort about it. Persons of high refinement, and of very little physical strength, often show great pluck. It is by no means mere dash. There are plucky women too--plucky ladies also as well as plucky men. Indeed I think that, as a rule, there is more true pluck among the weak than the strong, among the refined than the coarse-grained. Thus you will find high-bred officers show more pluck and sustained endurance in sieges and fatigue parties than most of the common soldiers; and so it is with travellers through difficult unexplored countries. Those who have had the least of rough training at home, but have given their mind more thoroughly to the work, will hold out and hold on pluckily when the big fellows with limbs and muscles like giants give in and knock up. It's pluck that carries them through. Now, isn't that pretty much the same as moral courage?" "Hardly, I think, my dear boy." "Well, where's the difference?" "I think the difference lies in this, that, if I understand rightly what you mean, and what I suppose is commonly meant by pluck, it may be found, and often is found, where there is no moral element in it at all." "I don't quite see it, auntie." "Do you not? then I must go to examples to show what I mean. I heard you tell a story the other day at breakfast of what you called a very `plucky' thing on the part of your friend Saunders." "What! the fight he had with some bargees? Oh yes, I remember." "Now, Walter, what were the circumstances of that fight?"