DEAN'S 
 
 Sllnstratrtt /artjiing 13nnks. 
 
 TRUE HEROES. 
 
 
 
 <FfNi 
 
 LONDON: DEAN & SON, 
 11, Ludgate Hill. 
 
 
ALFRED TiiE GREAT. 
 
 TRUE HEROES. 
 
 " Is it not grand to hear about all 
 these brave men? I am so glad that I 
 live in these war times !"' said George. 
 
 " So am I," said his brother William. 
 " We do not think that men who live 
 
TRUE HEROES. $ 
 
 nw-a-days could be such heroes. 1$ 
 seems like reading the histories of old 
 times. Think of that little boy, who 
 stood on the deck of his vessel, calmlv 
 filling the powder-flasks, while men were 
 falling dead around him ; and of that 
 Jonn Davis who threw himself over a 
 barrel of powder, to cover it, when a 
 shell from the enemy's battery burst near 
 him !" 
 
 " And kept on passing out the powder 
 for the guns " added George. 
 
 " And think of that gunner on the 
 Cumberland, who moved three steps on 
 his thighs after both legs were shot off, 
 fired his gun, and fell back dead V 
 
 " And the two gunners who went down 
 clasping their guns !" 
 
 " And think of men standing at their 
 guns, and firing as their ship went 
 down !" 
 
 « But I think," added Willy, ''that the 
 sea captain, that Aunt Mary was telling 
 us about, was as brave as any of them.'' 
 
 " What was that? I did not hear her," 
 said George, 
 
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 4 TRUE HEROES. 
 
 " He was coming from the West 
 Indies, and knew he was in great danger 
 from privateers. He saw a ship at a dis- 
 tance, which showed signals of distress. 
 All the crew and the passengers begged 
 him to keep away, feeling confident that 
 it was a privateer trying to decoy them. 
 His mate, who had sailed with him many 
 years, entreated him not to go to her, and 
 told him that the crew were ail ready to 
 
 mutiny. The passengers besought him 
 not to run into such danger ; and one of 
 them said that if they were taken prison- 
 ers, he should testify that it was all the 
 
TRUE HEROES. 5 
 
 captain's fault. The captain said nothing 
 in reply, but ordered them to steer for the 
 vessel, and kept his glass in one hand and 
 a pistol in the other. As they came neai 
 the vessel, the whole crew became clamo- 
 rous, saying they could see men and arms 
 on board. The captain thought he saw 
 a few men and bedding, and signs of 
 distress, One of the passengers looked 
 through the glass, and said he could see a 
 hundred men, and so the mate thought. 
 Still the captain kept on till they reached 
 the ship." 
 
 ; * And was it a privateer?" asked 
 George. 
 
 " No, it was a ship, just sinking. 
 She sank a few minutes after they got the 
 captain and crew on board their own 
 vessel. There were twenty -one persons 
 in all, almost starved and exhausted. 
 The captain brought them to this port, 
 and said not a word about it. He merely 
 reported that he had brought home the 
 crew of a sunken vessel The mate told 
 of it, and how he and almost all the crew 
 fell on their knees, and thanked the cap- 
 
6 
 
 TRUE HEROES. 
 
 tain for doing what they had tried so hard 
 to keep him from doing." 
 
 " Don't you wish, Will/' said George, 
 after a long pause. " that we were men, 
 and could do such things ?" 
 
 " It is not every man who has the 
 
 vw 
 
 chance to do them," said William. " Fa- 
 ther says that it is in a great many people 
 
TRUE HEROES. 7 
 
 to do great things, who never have an 
 opportunity to do them. He says it takes 
 something besides a man to make a 
 hero." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " An occasion. He says that heroism 
 is doing right when it is hard to do right. 
 It is doing, in the face of danger and diffi- 
 culty, precisely as one should do without 
 them." 
 
 " In other words, heroism is virtue 
 going through a tight place," said George. 
 <; But don t you suppose, Will, that when 
 it comes to the tight place, it gets new 
 strength, and becomes nerved to go 
 through ?" 
 
 " I suppose so. Father says that dan- 
 ger gives a sort of excitement, which 
 makes one able to do what he could not 
 do at other times. His- whole soul must 
 be roused, and in the act. And then I 
 suppose that the thought of what people 
 will say, is often a strong motive." 
 
 Their mother, who had been quietly 
 sewing, looked up from her work, anJ 
 said; " One of the noblest instances ol 
 
8 TRUE HEROES. 
 
 true heroism is that of a miner, of whom 
 I have lately read. He was with a com- 
 panion in the mine preparing for a blast. 
 By accident, the match was lighted too 
 soon, and there was not time for both to 
 escape, as they had to be drawn up sepa- 
 rately. Knowing that instant death was 
 before him, he quietly said, * Go aloft, 
 Jack; in a minute I shall be in heaven,' 
 There he was alone, underground, with 
 no witnesses, no encouragement, nothing 
 but his self-forgetting self. This was true 
 heroism." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said the boys. 
 
 " I should like to know how to go to 
 work to become a hero/ 1 said George. 
 
 " There is only one way," said his 
 mother — "to love right more than you 
 fear evil, and to dp right in spite of every- 
 thing. Then if an opportunity comes for 
 showing it, you are a hero ; if not, you 
 are quite as worthy, if not as famous.