"You see, if you lost the fight, your father would very likely be very
sick about it, and instead of getting rewarded, you might get nothing;
whereas, if the fight fell through and you merely said firmly you had no
reason for fighting me, and were not going to do it just because you
were ordered to, and then went and won the geography prize, that would
be a much greater score for you."
He admitted it might be, but didn't see how he could beat me at
geography.