“I wouldn’t have come if Chicken Little hadn’t been so scared. Of course, I didn’t want to stay there all alone,” Katy asserted blandly.
“It’s no such thing, Katy Halford—I’m most sure you started first. It was ’cause you yelled so I got so scared. My mother always says I’m real brave about thunder.”
“You did start first, Chicken Little Jane, and I just wish you could ’a’ heard yourself yell!”
“Girls,” said Mrs. Halford with a twinkle in her eye, “stand up together there.”
The children wonderingly obeyed and she surveyed them both carefully.
“Do you know,” she said reflectively, “I am sure it took you both to make all the noise I heard—I wonder how you did it—it sounded like a whole tribe of wild Indians. And if either of you beat the other to the house, it was because she could run faster.”
The little girls edged apart sheepishly. The subject was dropped. Mrs. Halford was a quiet little woman who seldom scolded, but she had a way with her that silenced even obstreperous Katy.
“Now if you want to know what I think,” she continued, “I think Gertie was the bravest one of the three.”
“Why, Mumsey Halford—you know Gertie came in first of all.” This was more than Katy could stand.
“Exactly, that’s why I think she was the bravest. She was brave enough to stand being made fun of rather than be a foolish little girl and stay out in the storm needlessly. Your courage and Jane’s, too, was mostly vanity, Katy dear. You wanted to show off—and each wanted to beat the other. That is the kind of courage that gets people into trouble in this world. The kind of courage I want my girls to have is the finer kind that does some good. It is the kind of courage that makes men risk their own lives to save people from drowning. Don’t you remember, Katy, the story I read you of the life-savers going out in the terrible storm to get the people off a sinking ship? And you remember how thrilled you were reading about the awful hardships of the patriots at Valley Forge? Theirs was the courage to suffer for the sake of their country. Do you suppose we would honor them today if they had half-starved themselves in the snow that winter just for fun? And the courage which is not afraid to refuse to do something wrong or silly, is just as necessary as the courage to do. I guess Gertie is one ahead this time. Don’t you think so?”