TRYING FOR THE TEAM
He is the stout gentleman I pointed out to you one day at the club with the two gold football emblems on his watch-chain. No, they don't laugh at him now, and his voice isn't high and squeaky. But it wasn't because he had the honor, merely, of being a member of the team that he became a man of force and self-reliance, but because he was willing to accept the bumps and thumps and discouragement that seem the incidental parts but are really the most important features of the game—and of all athletic sports, so far as concerns the actual benefit to those who are playing. But if he had let the jeers and gibes, which, after all, were good-natured gibes, drive him off the football field he might have remained something of a big, fat booby to this day.
Hearing a little laughter won't hurt you a bit, but fearing it will harm you greatly. To so many people laughter in this sense suggests an attitude of superiority over the one laughed at. As a matter of fact, jeers and sneers are more frequently prompted by a jealous sense of inferiority.
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