s champagne in tumblers, and
then abused it and clamored for beer in the middle of the supper.
Chanter, whose prodigality in some ways was only exceeded by his
general meanness, had lost his temper at this demand, and
insisted that, if they wanted beer, they might send for it
themselves, for he wouldn't pay for it. This protest was treated
with uproarious contempt, and gallons of ale soon made their
appearance in college jugs and tankards. The tables were cleared,
and songs (most of them of more than doubtful character), cigars,
and all sorts of compounded drinks, from claret cup to egg flip,
succeeded. The company, recruited constantly as men came into the
college, was getting more and more excited every minute. The
scouts cleared away and carried off the relics of the supper, and
then left; still the revel went on, till, by midnight, the men
were ripe for any mischief or folly which those among them who
retained any brains at all could suggest. The signal for breaking
up was given by the host's falling from his seat.

Some of the men rose with a shout to put him to bed, which they
accomplished with difficulty, after dropping him several times,
and left him to snore off the effects of his debauch with one of
his boots on. Others took to doing what mischief occurred to them
in his rooms. One man mounted on a chair with a cigar in his
mouth which had gone out, was employed in pouring the contents of
a champagne bottle with unsteady hand into the clock on the
mantel-piece. Chanter was a particular man in this sort of
furniture, and his clock was rather a specialty. It was a large
bronze figure of Atlas, supporting the globe in the shape of a
time-piece. Unluckily, the maker, not anticipating the sort of
test to which his work would be subjected, had ingeniously left
the hole for winding up in the top of the clock, so that unusual
facilities existed for drowning the world-carrier, and he was
already almost at his last tick. One or two men were morally
aiding and abetting, and physically supporting the experimenter
on clocks, who found it difficult to stand to his work by
himself. Another knot of young gentlemen stuck to the tables, and
so continued to shout out scraps of song, sometimes standing on
their chairs, and sometimes tumbling off them. Another set were
employed on the amiable work of pouring beer and sugar into three
new pairs of polished leather dress boots, with colored tops to
them, which they discovered in