"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!"