aning youth, concluded that it was his duty to
inform the Faculty of offences committed by his classmates,
a proceeding it is needless to say contrary to all the boys'
sentiments as to honorable conduct. Some windows had been
broken, including his. He informed the Faculty of the person
who had broken them, who was rusticated for a short time as
punishment. The next day being Saturday, this informer, dressed
up in his best, was starting for Boston, when he was seized
by six of his classmates and held under the College pump until
he received a sound ducking. He seized the finger of one
of them with his teeth and bit it severely, though it was protected
somewhat by a ring. He complained of five of the six, who
were forthwith suspended until the next Commencement, losing,
of course, their rank in the class and their chances for taking
part in the Commencement exercises. One of them, of whom
he omitted to tell, was much disturbed by the omission and
demanded of the informer why he left him out. He said that
he had rather a pity for him, as he had already been suspended
once and he supposed the new offence would lead to his being
expelled. Whereupon he said, "I will give you some reason
to tell of me," and proceeded to administer a sound caning.
That was at once reported to the Faculty. The offender was
expelled, and criminal proceedings had which resulted in a
fine.

We had some delightful lectures from Longfellow on the literature
of the Middle Ages. He read us some of his own original poems
and some beautiful translations. All the substance of these
lectures I think is to be found in his book entitled "The
Poets and Poetry of the Middle Ages." I do not see that we
gained anything of solid instruction by having them read to
us that we could not have got as well by reading them. We
had also a course of lectures from Jared Sparks on American
history. They were generally dull and heavy, but occasionally
made intensely interesting when he described some stirring
event of the Revolutionary War. We hung breathless on his
account of the treason of Arnold and its detection and the
class burst out into applause when he ended,--a thing the
like of which never happened in any time in College. There
was a little smattering of instruction in modern languages,
but it was not of much value. We had a French professor named
Viau whom the boys tormented unmercifully. He spoke English
very imperfectly, and his ludicrous