they had covered a mile.

"I don't," Tom admitted. "Do you, Dick?"

"I've been forming an idea," Prescott went on. "Our fault, if
I can gather it rightly from what I've been reading, is that we
Americans are inclined to be too babyish."

"Tell that to the countries we've been at war with in the past,"
jeered Tom Reade.

"Oh, I guess it's a different breed of Americans that we send
to the front in war time," Prescott continued. "But, take you
fellows; some of you have been almost kicking because breakfast
is put off a bit. Most Americans are like that. Yet, it isn't
because we have such healthy stomachs, either, for foreigners
know us as a race of dyspeptics. Take a bit of cold weather in
winter---really cold, biting weather and just notice how Americans
kick and worry about it. Take any time when we have a succession
of rainy days, and notice how Americans growl over the continued
wet. Whatever happens that is in the least disagreeable, see
what a row we Americans raise about it."

"I imagine it's a nervous vent for the race," advanced Dave Darrin.

"But why must Americans have a nervous vent?" Dick inquired.
"In other words, what business have we with diseased nerves!
Don't you imagine that all our kicking, many times every day of
our lives, makes the need of nervous vent more and more pronounced?"

"Oh, I don't know about that," argued Tom. "I hate to hear any
fellow talk disparagingly about his own country or its people.
It doesn't sound just right. In war time, or during any great
national disaster or calamity, the Americans who do things always
seem to rise to the occasion. We're a truly great people, all
right. But I don't make that claim because I consider myself
ever likely to be one of the great ones."

"Why are we a great people?" pursued Prescott.

"We are the richest nation in the world," argued Reade. "That
must show that we are people capable of making great successes."

"Is our greatness due to ourselves, or to the fact that the United
States embraces the greatest natural resources in the world?"
demanded Dick Prescott.

"It's partly due to the people, and partly due to the resources
of the country," Dave contended.

Dick kept them arguing. Harry Hazelton, as driver, remained silent,
but the others argued against Dick, trying to overthrow all his
disparaging utterances against the American people.

Finally Reade grew warm, indeed.

"Cut it out, Dick---do!" he urged. "This