WHAT THE OLD GRADUATE LEARNED
"Huh! I don't believe I bother 'em much." The undergraduate stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Oh, come now, you're too modest. That's the trouble with Princeton men, they're too much afraid they'll be thought stuck on themselves. They're too much afraid of ridicule."
"No! that isn't what I mean." He looked pityingly at the green graduate; "I don't give a damn."
"Oh, I see," said the other, missing the point entirely, "now I know what kind of a prominent man you are. I beg your pardon for misjudging you. Allow me to shake your hand. I admire your sort most of all, the independent sort who 'don't give a damn'—who try to live up to their own ideals, and not down to those of the sheep-like multitude, the sort every one respects and a good many fear, the sort whom fellows go to when in trouble, the sort who don't parade their principles but try to follow them, the sort who have a sense of humor and get a lot of fun out of life, and yet see
211
