hands within his grasp.

"Yours is a generous nature, William," said Mr. Calvert, "and I have
not said to you, until to-day, how grateful your boyish sympathies
have been to me from the first day when you became my pupil. It
is my knowledge of these sympathies, and a desire to reward them,
that prompts me to tell a story which still brings its pains to
memory, and which would be given to no other ears than your own.
I see that you are eager for the rest--for the wretched sequel."

"Oh, no! sir--do not tell me any more of it if it brings you pain.
I confess I should like to know all, but--"

"You shall have it all, my son. My purpose would not be answered
unless I finished the narrative. You will gather from it, very
possibly, the moral which I could not. You will comprehend something
better, the woful distinction between courage of the blood and courage
of the brain; between the mere recklessness of brute impulse, and
the steady valor of the soul--that valor, which, though it trembles,
marches forward to the attack--recovers from its fainting, to
retrieve its defeat; and glows with self-indignation because it has
suffered the moment of victory to pass, without employing itself
to secure the boon!--

"Shame, and a natural desire to retrieve myself, operated to make
me renew my efforts. I need not go through the processes by which
I endeavored to acquire the necessary degree of hardihood. In vain
did I recall the fact that my competitors were notoriously persons
far inferior to me in knowledge of the topics; far inferior in the
capacity to analyze them; rude and coarse in expression; unfamiliar