candles and whale oil were the
sole source of illumination, while the wood yard, always mentioned with
deep feeling by every alumnus of that period, was the source of heat.

Time went according to a bell mounted on a post at the rear, which
seemed to have been a prolific source of student humor. It was turned
upside down in winter and filled with water, with a corresponding
vacation the following morning; the clapper was stolen; and finally in
Dr. Tappan's day it was even carried away, post and all. The President,
however, was a match for the jokers and simply announced that as the
bell was a convenience which the students did not seem to need, classes
would be held henceforth without the usual call. As the regulations were
very strict as to attendance and four unexcused absences a matter for
the higher powers, it was not long before a student rose in Chapel and
requested permission to reinstate the Campus time-piece,--which was
graciously granted.

There are stories innumerable of donkeys and geese appearing in unusual
places and of the Chapel on one occasion being filled with hay, while
once a whole load of wood, wagon and all, was laboriously set up on the
roof of the college hall. On another occasion a number of students,
waiting for their recitation period, corralled a herd of cows grazing on
the Campus, and so thoroughly frightened one calf that he rushed into
the open door of the building as the safest refuge. Some one shut the
door instantly, and when Professor Winchell's class-room door was
opened, in rushed the badly demoralized animal. The effect may be
imagined. Professor Winchell always thought it a "proposed and
deliberate insult," but, as the historian of the incident in the
"Class-Book" of '61 observes: "Any one will at once perceive that no one
was to blame but the calf, who lost his presence of mind." All this
humor, however, was rather elementary; for the most part life was
sufficiently sedate, and the pranks ordinarily far from atrocious.

In the earliest days the term fees of $7.50 covered the cost of rooms in
the dormitories, while the cost of board ranged from $1.50 to $2.00 a
week. H.B. Nichols, a student in 1850, gave his father the following,--

account of monies, by me expended. In it I put an estimate of the
term tax at $6.00. It is $6.62-1/2 and divided as follows, viz:
Room rent, $1.50. Janitor's fees, $1.50. Wood bill $2.87-1/2 and
Hall tax for damages to the Buildi