.

I am told that it would all be useless,--that the boys would deface and
destroy, till the last state of the buildings would be worse than the
first. I do not believe one word of it. It is inferred that they would
deface, because they deface now. But what is it that they deface?
Deformity. And who blames them? You see a rough board, and, by natural
instinct, you dive into it with your jackknife. A base bare wall is a
standing invitation to energetic and unruly pencils. Give the boys a
little elegance and the tutors a little tact, and I do not believe there
would be any trouble. If I had a thousand dollars,--as I did have once,
but it is gone: shall I ever look upon its like again?--I would not be
afraid to stake the whole of it upon the good behavior of college
students,--that is, if I could have the managing of them. I would make
them "a speech," when they came back at the end of one of their long
vacations, telling them what had been done, why it had been done, and
the objections that had been urged against doing it. Then I would put
the matter entirely into their hands. I would appeal solely to their
honor. I would repose in them so much confidence that they could by no
possibility betray it. We don't trust people half enough. We hedge
ourselves about with laws and locks and deeds and bonds, and neglect the
weightier matters of inherent right and justice that lie in every bosom.

It may be thought hardly polite to accept hospitality and then go away
and inveigh against the hospital; but my animadversions, you will do me
the justice to observe, are not aimed at my entertainers. I am marauding
for, not against them.

* * * * *

The Oration and Poem form the first public features of Class-Day, but,
arriving late, I could only eddy on the surge that swept around the
door. Strains of distant eloquence would occasionally float musically to
my ear; now and then a single word would steer clear of the thousands of
heads and come into my port unharmed. Frequent waves of laughter beat
and broke into the vestibule; but what is more "trying" to a frail
temper than laughter in which one cannot join? So we tarried long enough
to mark the fair faces and fine dresses, and then rambled under the old
trees till the hour for the "collation" came; and this is the second
point on which I purpose to dwell.

Each member of the Senior Class prepares a banquet,--sometimes
separately and sometimes in clubs