184 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



Presently we were accosted, but without seeming to hear the 

 question. Soon there were a dozen of the guardians marching 

 beside us full of wonder and of doubt what to do. We were in 

 no wise disturbing the peace ; their only evident part, therefore, 

 was to join the procession. At the end of the five-mile tramp 

 we came back to the ship to find it afloat. Our spokesman then 

 thanked the officers for their services as escort, and hoped they 

 felt better for the much-needed exercise we had afforded them. 



There was very little "larking" among our lot; practical 

 jokes were voted stupid, and only one such stays by me. There 

 was a half-crazy impostor who used to bother us with his 

 speeches and his solicitations to buy a copy of his poem on 

 Bunker Hill. You had to buy the poem, for the alternative was 

 to kill him and leave town. Threats, duckings, moderate drub- 

 bings had no effect whatever. Finally, we had our revenge by 

 persuading the fellow that there was to be a great meeting after 

 midnight in front of the old State House in Boston to hear him 

 speak. A small, silent audience was provided, and also a ladder ; 

 he was taken to the place in a carriage and swiftly urged up the 

 ladder and placed in the balcony about twenty feet from the 

 ground. The multitude then departed, taking the ladder with 

 them. It was so quickly done that there were no police to inter- 

 fere. Their wonder was great when they found the wight in his 

 rostrum bawling to an imaginary throng. Save in one instance, 

 among the students with whom I had any intimate association 

 in that day there was no vice. There were several of whom I 

 became by one chance and another caretaker who were rake- 

 hells, but so far as I recall, they were all College or Law School 

 men. Our general decency was, I think, due in large measure 

 to the fact that we worked hard and that the fellows who did 

 not do so were quickly elided. Something may be attributed 

 to the fact that we were not watched by proctors or forced to 

 do anything. We thus came to rule ourselves and to look after 

 one another ; it was a little brotherhood well knit together. 



I had much diversion from a small collection of living animals 



