"Ah, no! Many people have said that, little one, but I must make you see further. There are those who will say, if this man had not done this deed of sacrifice, if he had kept his own valuable life, he might have done many more great things later on. Ah, but they forget...." and the blind man stretched out his arms as though appealing to an unseen audience. "They forget that all the useful and good things which he might still have done, are as nothing before the wonderful example he has given, before.... Oh, how shall I tell you, my child? ... before the way in which he has made thousands of men's and women's hearts beat with noble thoughts,--before the way in which he has made the little children of his land lift up their heads, and say, 'I, too, will be like him some day!' No, Aleko, no! What he has done lasts through the years; and the bravery of great men of whom you will read some day, such a deed for instance as that of Paul Melas[13] in our own time, makes all the world nobler and stronger for them, even after their names come to be forgotten!" There was silence for some minutes, then Aleko said:-- "When I am twenty-one years old, and my time comes to serve in the army, if there be a war while I am a soldier, then I may be very brave and perhaps ..." his eyes brightened as he spoke, "they may print it in the newspaper, and someone will read it to you, and you will say, 'That is Aleko, I know him.' But if there is no war, ... then what can I do?" "It is of your age, my child, to think that only in fighting can one be brave; but I could fill a big book with all the different kinds of courage." "Tell me, then! How could I be brave if there were no war?" The blind man groped for the boy's hand and held it for a moment. "I think you are brave now." "But that is impossible; I have done naught." "Suppose that next year when you finish the highest class of the Parnassos, you were to get the first prize?" "Yes," assented Aleko, "I shall get it." "Very well; how much is it?" "Three hundred drachmæ." "Would that sum not be sufficient to keep you for a year at least without working, if you wished to go to a higher class in the Municipal School?" "It would be sufficient for me alone, but who would send money to my mother and the little ones, if I did not work?" "That is just what I meant; you go on working for them, instead of getting more learning for yourself, as you would like to do. Well, that is a brave deed!" "But, no," said the boy, his face puckered with perplexity, "that is not brave. I do not like it at all!" "But you do it." Aleko got up from his knees. "I do not do it; it does itself. How can I help it?" then, as he shouldered his box to go, he asked, "After I have read to-morrow, will you tell me about some more great men?" "I will tell you all I know; ... only come!" VI