ed 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?"

"Ah, I remember; and I think I see what you are driving at, Aunt Kate.
Saunders, who is only a slightly-built fellow, and almost as thin as a
whipping post, got into a row with some of those canal men; he wanted
them to turn out of his way, or to let him pass and go through a lock
before them, and they wouldn't."

"And did he ask them civilly?"

"Nay, Aunt Kate, not he. No, I'm sorry to say he swore at them; for
he's a very hasty fellow with his tongue is Saunders."

"And were the bargemen unreasonably hindering him?"

"I can't say that. They were just going into the lock when he rowed up,
and he wanted them to get out of his way and let him go into the lock
first. I don't think myself that he was right."

"And what happened then?"

"Oh, he abused them, and they wanted to throw him into the canal; at
least they threatened to do so. And then he challenged the biggest of
them to a stand-up fight, and a ring was made and they fought; and
certainly it was a strange thing to see Saunders, with his bare arms
looking no thicker than a hop-pole, tackling that great fellow, whose
right arm was nearly as thick as Saunders's body. Nevertheless,
Saunders didn't shrink; he stood up to the bargee, and, being a capital
boxer, he managed to