“It would have been cowardly.”
“Of course—I knew it; I knew what you thought; but I wanted you to say it out.”
“Nobody else has asked me. I didn’t think that bear would go after anybody but me and the cub, and I just held on.”
“I see. It explains what you felt; it does not excuse what you did. This is not quite all of it.”
He was silent.
“You were afraid some one would think you were afraid. Wasn’t that a sort of cowardice, Jack?”
He was clear of head now, and this arrow went to the mark.
“Yes,” he said; “I’d hate to think I was afraid.”
“What is courage?”
“Oh, not to be afraid; never to be afraid.”