'Oh, I don't know. _I_ don't see anything puzzling,' said Alex, looking puzzled, nevertheless. 'It just means not being afraid of anything. It's just the way people are made. Some are afraid, and some aren't. I'm never afraid, but it's just that I'm made that way,' he went on. 'But if that's it, it has nothing to do with being good,' said Lambert, who was more thoughtful than Alex. 'I mean, it's no use thinking about a thing that comes of itself like that, mother. And yet being brave is always counted as if it was something good, something to be praised for.' He raised his face to his mother's, questioningly. 'Well, try and put your feeling about it into words,' she said. Lambert hesitated. 'I know,' said Linda, confidently. 'Mother means that true bravery is when there's no pretending about it. Some people who are really afraid _pretend_ they're not--boastingly, you know.' 'And that is _one_ sort of cowardice,' said her mother. 'They don't own the truth, because they're afraid of being thought afraid. You're right so far, Linda; but you do not go quite far enough.' A little eager sound from Nettie caught her attention. 'Well, Nettie, have you something to say?' she asked. 'I don't quite know,' Nettie began. 'I thought I could see it, but I'm not sure. But isn't it a little like this, mother--that whether one's afraid or not, one should try to do anything that's right to do?' Her mother smiled. 'Yes, that is something like it,' she said. 'That's what I have been wanting you to get to see. The _mastering the fear_--that is the truest bravery of all. Not for what others may or may not think of us, but because it is right. When a duty comes in the way, something right or good or kind to do, a really brave person, man, woman, or child, will do it even if it is something which they fear to do.' 'But still,' Lambert objected, 'there are some people praised for being brave who don't feel fear--like what Alex said. Should they not be praised, mother?' 'Certainly they should be praised for doing right at risk to themselves,' said his mother. 'It is a great blessing to be naturally brave--what is called physically brave. But I doubt if even the naturally bravest men have never known fear. It is the determination to do their duty at all costs that keeps them brave and gives strength and courage. And this even the most timid by nature can learn; so this is what I call true bravery. Not the unreasoning courage of a lion or a bulldog, but the courage of a man who knows his duty and will do it.' The children sat silent--each in his or her own way thinking over their mother's words. One only had said nothing, but he was pondering deeply, and his mother, glancing round, saw Denis gazing before him with a curious look in his innocent blue eyes. 'Do you understand a little, Denis, my boy?' she asked, with a smile. 'I fink so,' he answered softly, and she felt him squeeze the hand he held. But that was all he said. [Illustration]