her despair she was about to decide that
she would never make another effort to have things pleasant for the
children, when the bit of fluff in the bird-cage, roused from stupor by
the noise made by the discouraged woman, lifted its voice in song.

That song told her that she had reached once again the point that comes
to everyone, times without number, the point that separates the life of
conquest from the life of defeat, the life of cowardice from the life of
courage. She was at the crossroads, and she took the turning to the
right. The bird's song marked for her the end of discouragement.

"I can sing, as well as the bird," she said to herself. And at once she
began to make plans for her charges.

Everywhere there are people who feel that the odds are against them,
that difficulties in the way are unsurmountable, that it is useless to
make further effort to conquer. The author of "The Book of Courage"
knows by experience how they feel, and he longs to send to them a
message of cheer and death-to-the-blues, a call to go on to the better
things that wait for those who face life in the spirit of the gallant
General Petain, whose watchword, "They shall not pass!" put courage into
his men and hope into the hearts of millions all over the world.

"Courage!" is the call to these. "Courage" is likewise the word to those
who are already struggling in the conquering spirit of Sir Walter Scott
who, when both domestic calamity and financial misfortune came, said to
a comforter, "The blowing off of my hat on a stormy day has given me
more weariness," who called adversity "a tonic and a bracer."

The world needs courage--the high courage that shows itself in a life of
daily struggle and conquest, that smiles at obstacles and laughs at
difficulties.

How is the needed courage to be secured? What are the springs of
courage? What are some of the results of courage? These are questions
"The Book of Courage" seeks to answer by telling of men and women who
have become courageous.

Glorious provision has been made by the Inspirer of men for giving
courage to all, no matter what their difficulties or their hardships.
Among His provisions are home and friends, work and service, will and
conscience, the world with all its beauty, and Himself as Companion and
Friend.

Thus we are left absolutely without excuse when we are tempted to let
down the bars to worry and gloom and discouragement.

Keep up the bars! Don't let the enemies of